


Darcy Lewis is no Thief!

by Livvy_Nicklaus



Series: The Guardian Angel of New York [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Darcy Lewis, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Canon-Typical Violence, Darcy is the fandom bicycle and I love it, F/M, Infinity Gems, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis Friendship, Protective Steve Rogers, Red Room Darcy Lewis, Slow Burn, Superhero Darcy Lewis, Thief! Darcy Lewis, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-01-11 00:41:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 36,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12311235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livvy_Nicklaus/pseuds/Livvy_Nicklaus
Summary: I really want to write a comic book but I can't draw so I'm going to do a few series on here that draw parallels from my comic book super hero character.In this one Darcy has escaped from the Red Room many years ago but gone her own way from Jane after the events of Thor and Thor: Dark World as she can't risk SHIELD or the Avengers discovering her past. She is flung back into the path of SHIELD and the Avengers through no choice of her own.





	1. Darcy Lewis vs The Winter Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> This was all based of an original character I created but I'm on the Darcy fanwagon now, so if this garners interest I'll keep writing this story :)

Darcy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, _you have no choice_ , she tells herself, _you’ve planned this out and you can do it_. _Failure is not an option_.

“You OK over there?” Darcy opens her eyes and smiles with confidence that she doesn’t feel at the pilot, he doesn’t know what she was about to do. They were in a little plane 20,000 feet in the air flying over New York City, in three minutes Darcy was going to jump out of the plane and parachute onto the Avengers Tower.

The pilot thought it was a publicity stunt about saving the rain forest and she should have felt guilty about putting him in danger, but she didn’t mind if he was caught and prosecuted for helping her. During her research into pilots she had discovered that he had aided in a bank robbery five years ago that had resulted in a security guard being shot. It made him the perfect choice. _Karma’s a bitch_ , she thinks.

“Good to go!” She waves at him and heads to the door, she checks her watch and triple checks the tech on it switching on the Pepper interface she built. “Now or never,” she mutters to herself as she flung herself into the air.

Darcy resists the urge to hoot and holler as she speeds down towards the city, no matter how many times she jumps she would always marvel at the feeling of flying, it was so freeing and exhilarating. She directs her descent towards the Avengers Tower, she has to time it perfectly as her parachute would only be out for a few seconds so she could avoid detection but also has to aim flawlessly as to not end up squashed like a bug against the side of the tower, _and that’s not even the dangerous part_.

The really dangerous part was if she ran into any of the Avengers while she was in the tower, and although an “Assemble Avengers” had been called thirty minutes ago and they had piled into their quinjet and left she didn’t know if anyone had stayed behind, or how long they would be gone. She plans to be in and out in under five minutes, using the landing pad as her main point of entry and giving her quick access to what she came for.

As the Avengers Tower comes into view Darcy gets herself into position and pulls her chute at the last second and then roughly somersaults along the ground to distribute the force of her landing. She pulls her chute in quickly and makes her way inside, checking her Pepper interface and pulling up her mask as she enters the building.

“Good Afternoon Ms Potts.”

Darcy lets out a whoosh of breath that she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. She had no way to know that her Pepper interface would work on Stark’s AI, she had been hopeful as it had fooled a number of other security systems, but hadn’t been able to prove it outside of the tower.

“Good Afternoon FRIDAY.” Darcy replies primly as she heads to Stark’s R&D lab travelling as quickly as she could.

“May I enquire as to what you are looking for Ms Potts? Perhaps I can be of assistance?” The AI asks her as she goes through Stark’s lab heading straight for the back.

“No thank you FRIDAY, I’m just getting one of Tony’s suits for him, he called and asked that I bring it to him ASAP.” She reached the space where she found the suitcase with the repaired Mark V, although an older model, it would be the easiest to transport. She grabs it, gives it a quick check over, turns the GPS off and heads back up to the landing pad, _smooth sailing so far,_ but no sooner than she thinks that than the elevator doors open next to her and the occupant stares out at her. They are suspended in time for a moment as they eye each other in surprise.

Darcy had followed all the news coverage of the Avengers and their battles, and even though he’d had a haircut, a shave and his skin was darker, she knew that she was looking at the Winter Solider, her worst case scenario was getting caught by him or the Black Widow. They were the ones that would be most likely to try and kill her first, ask questions later.

He takes a step out of the elevator towards her, his eyes narrowing as he takes in her mask and the suitcase she was clutching, although her interface worked on FRIDAY it couldn’t fool humans when staring at her directly. The Soldier's metal arm starts whirring and Darcy decides that she isn't taking any chances and flicks her knockout powder at his face too quickly for him to avoid. He stumbles forward, losing balance as his eyes slide shut, Darcy catches him as he drops to the floor, cradling his head she falls under him, as he is extremely heavy. She grabs a pillow from the chair next to them for him to rest his head on as she wiggles out from under him.

“Ms Potts, I’m concerned for Sergeant Barnes, he seems to have fallen asleep suddenly.”

“He’s fine FRIDAY, just a little tired from all the partying he’s been doing.” She gives her leg a hard tug as it is stuck beneath him.

“I’m not sure what you mean Ms Potts, he hasn’t been doing any celebrating, he hasn’t left the tower since he arrived two months ago.”

“Look I gotta get going FRIDAY and take this suit to Tony.” Darcy hesitates looking at the sleeping soldier, _his advancements will mean he wakes up quickly and therefore the Avengers will find out about this sooner, I need to go with Plan B._  She drops the suitcase down, flicks the open switch with her foot and pushes her hands into the attachments. “Here goes nothing,” she mutters to herself as she activates the suit and it assembles around her.

“Ms Potts, this is unexpected.”

“FRIDAY I need to leave now, set course for Hong Kong, I will direct us once we arrive.”

“Of course Ms Potts,” the AI replies as the suit launches off into the sky. “I’m having trouble contacting Sir at this moment, you believe he’s in China?”

“FRIDAY you need to cease tracking me now and lock yourself out of the suit, it is imperative for Tony’s safety that you do so at once.”

“Of course, goodbye Ms Potts.” The AI disappears from the suit.

Darcy closes her eyes for a moment breathing a sigh of relief, it wasn’t over but at least for now she could relax and enjoy the flight.

Although she was appreciating the scenery the suit was heading upwards over 30,000 feet so there wasn’t much more than clouds to look at after a while and her mind wandered. _The Winter Solider is much better looking in person_ , she catches herself thinking and can't stop the blush from furiously covering her cheeks.  _Darcy keep your head in the game, the Winter Soldier is not someone to lust after_ she orders herself. _Well, maybe from far far away where he can’t shoot you in retaliation for knocking him out_.

 

…

 

Back at the Avenger’s Tower Bucky was waking up, he goes from sleepy to alert in half a second jumping up and scouting the room for danger. “FRIDAY” he calls, although he wasn’t completely trusting of Stark’s AI, he needed its help. 

“Yes Sergeant Barnes?”

“How long have I been asleep? How far away are the Avengers? Who took Tony’s suit?”

“Two hours, sixty-three minutes and Ms Potts.”

Bucky is confused with the AI’s last answer, “show me the footage of her when we met at the elevator.”

A projection of Pepper Potts outside the elevator appeared, Bucky watched as ‘Pepper’ blew a white powder on him and then caught him as he passed out.

“It wasn’t Pepper FRIDAY, it was an intruder. She fooled your systems.”

“Impossible.”

“Not impossible. Have you contacted the team about this yet?”

“No, Sir’s communications were damaged on the mission and I haven’t been able to speak to him yet.”

“Where is the suit and the thief now?” Bucky runs his hands through his hair in frustration as he watches ‘Pepper’ take the time to put a cushion under his head. When the elevator doors had opened he had instinctively he known that the thief wasn’t there to hurt him, but had still been considering how to proceed when she knocked him out. He was never going to hear the end of this from the team, especially Stark.

“I don’t know Sergeant, she ordered me to stop tracking her and locked me out. Last I knew she was heading for Hong Kong.”

Bucky spent the time till the team returned rewatching the projection of the thief from when she landed till when she took off. FRIDAY even got some of the footage from the suit but it only lasted a few minutes before it blacked out when she had ordered the AI to lock itself out. He went up to meet the team as they land, steeling himself for owning up to his mistake. However the AI beats him to it, quickly describing the whole event to Stark as he walks in.

“How’d she get into the tower? How’d she get to this level? How’d she get into my lab? How’d she get the suit to work for her? How’d she beat you FRIDAY?” Tony fires off questions rapidly as he stalks to the common area.

Bucky just stands there waiting to be berated, as Stark moves to the projection followed by the team, who precede to quietly watch all the footage, as Stark types furiously into the computers and FRIDAY tries to answer his questions.

When it got to the part where she knocked him unconscious, Clint bursts out laughing, falling onto one of the couches and Steve just pats Bucky on the shoulder trying to be comforting.

“All that’s missing is the popcorn,” Clint smirks at Bucky.

“Did she look like Pepper to you?” Bruce asks him, his eyes sympathetic.

“No, she was about the same build as Nat, slightly curvier, long dark hair tied up and she was wearing a mask.”

“BOOYA!” Tony yells triumphantly as he throws his hands in the air, “let’s see what you really look like.”

The projection of Pepper flickered and died and in it’s place was the woman Bucky had seen although her face was still covered.

Clint lets out a long appreciative whistle, “I see why you were so distracted Buck, she’s got a killer bod.”

The image changes to the one in the Mark V suit and instead of Pepper’s face they see part of the thief's, her mask has slipped down to just above her nose. Bucky steps closer to the image, her eyes were a deep blue, her features delicate. He watches as she closes her eyes in triumph as the suit flies up into the air and then when they open, just before the feed is cut they were serene, like she was at peace.

“Fuck me she is gorgeous.” Clint exclaims as he steps closer to the image. _Have I seen these eyes before?_ He thinks to himself as he studies them.

Natasha rolls her eyes at Clint who was now openly ogling the woman on the screen, “Well I don’t know about the rest of you but since we can’t do anything till the ‘Boy Wonder’ tracks her down I’m going to eat and then stand in the shower for 10 years.” She saunters out of the room to the elevator, Bruce and Clint quickly follow.

“C’mon and get some food with us Buck, we can brief you on the mission.” Steve claps him on the shoulder and propels him to the stairs and they go to the kitchen to join the others, leaving Tony to his muttering as he tries to figure out who the thief is and where she went.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! What do you think?


	2. Darcy Lewis gets Blackmailed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of backstory as to why Darcy did what she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMGYOUGUYSICANTBELIEVEYOU!!!  
> You are all so totally awesome and I cannot get over the positive response I've had to this story!
> 
> Here's a teeny weeny itty bitty bit of backstory

Two weeks earlier...

 

“Wha… What did you say?” Darcy stuttered out in shock, staring at the Warlord in disbelief.

“I said, bring me the Iron Man suit and I will let your brothers, the Elders, go unharmed,” Zhang Wu replied, speaking in Mandarin, as Darcy was, he gestured to the monks that he and his men had their weapons pointed at. They were at the hidden Shaolin Temple in Southern China, known as Nan-Shaolin, however thought to be legend to most of the world as it was yet ‘undiscovered’ by modern civilisation. The Warlord’s men were spread out across the Temple with their guns pointed at the five elderly monks in the centre of the courtyard. On another day the Temple would have looked stunning, with the huge rocks making up with walls of the Temple and the forest and flowers spilling over the walls to make the courtyard colourful and bright. However with the Warlord and his militia roughly handling the monks Darcy wasn’t able to appreciate it’s beauty like she used too. There was no way that Darcy could get the Elders out of there without a few casualties, even with her pair of glock handguns she couldn’t risk attacking the armed men.

“How do you expect me to do that? Tony Stark will surely have the best anti-theft systems possible on his Iron Man suits, it would be impossible to steal one.” Darcy’s eyes dart all over the monks, checking that they are unharmed, she is trying her best to use her training in the Red Room on clandestine work but her emotions were always too overwhelming to be any good. Her specialty was information gathering, as her instructors had trained her to use her natural emotions to make people trust her, as no one ever thought the girl that sang or swore or threw things or made mistakes could ever be dangerous.

“I know of your secret Annchi,” the Warlord glared menacingly at her using her Chinese name. “I know of your abilities, you will find a way or I will slaughter your brothers.”

Fear over took her for a moment as she looked to Dao Yong Fang the Temple Abbot and leader, standing serene next to the warlord even though he had a gun pointed at his head. For a moment she considered both options of fleeing and fighting, however the Abbot’s calm presence filled her as she remembered her training and centred herself taking a moment to meditate.

Seven years ago when she left the Temple to explore the world, Dao Yong Fang had been explicit in his instructions that she live her life to the fullest and while honoring the gifts that she had been given, she also needed to honor herself. She had travelled the world twice over, stopping everywhere she could, when she left the Temple she had been fluent in fifteen languages and was now able in carry conversation in another eight with perfect accents. Having an eidetic memory helped her vastly with gaining knowledge in the technology of the modern world, building on what the Red Room had given her, this included gun, ammunitions and explosives training as well as computer forensics training and some time working with forgers learning to put together IDs that would protect her from being discovered for what she was. She also discovered her passion for extreme sports and climbed every rockface, snowboarded every ice cap and glided off every mountain she could while learning the new customs and cultures of today’s society. The people she travelled with were young, carefree and invited her into their world without hesitation, it helped that she looked so young. She had decided to follow some of the friends she had made, while volunteering with an aid group in Sierra Leone, to University, where she did her degree in political science and picked up an internship with Dr Foster. That had been more than she had bargained for and after 2 alien attacks she got her degree and moved on. Although she missed Jane, she had no need to be on SHIELD or the Avengers radars. She hadn’t planned to return to the Temple any time soon, but she had received a disturbing message the day before from the Abbott and flown in quickly from Indonesia, where she was using her degree to work with humanitarian relief, to see what the problem was, now she knew.

Even though she had only been meditating for a few seconds, Zhang Wu was frustrated with her lack of reply and yelled at her to get her to bring her attention back to him. “Will you accept this task or will you watch as I kill your brothers?”

“I accept,” she replied hurriedly, “but I will speak with the Abbot first before I leave.” The Warlord nodded in agreement and took his gun off Dao Yong Fang and prodded him toward Darcy. 

As he reached her and she started to speak, asking for his guidance, but he motioned for her to be quiet, “The students are safe, they will return when this is done. However Annchi, once you do this you must never come back. This place is no longer safe for you and your enemies will use it as a means to trap you. Zhang Wu will not cease to use you if he can and surely he will pass the knowledge he has of you on to others, if he has not done so already. You know that although the program is decommissioned that there are others out there who will come after you. Everything that has happened with the Winter Soldier and Hydra has made you incredibly valuable to both sides. When you leave today you must never return. You have spent years training with us, I would not have insisted you leave in the first place if I did not believe you were fully prepared. I knew my predecessor believed you ready to depart Nan-Shaolin but you wanted more time, I have given you that more time. It is truly time for you to use what you learned and forge your own path now. Whether it is in the shadows or out in the light it is your journey to choose.” 

Dao Yong Fang then bowed low to the ground and stayed there waiting for her to leave, Darcy looked up to see the other elders bow equally as low. She bowed in return, her eyes glistening slightly as she faced the Warlord.

“You will have your suit and you will swear on your honour that you will not harm any of my brothers or their students. Or you will have a war on your hands you cannot win.” With that declaration she  turned her back and walked out of the Temple. It took all of her willpower to not look back at the Abbott and the monks she knew as her brothers.

“You have until the new moon,” Zhang Wu shouted after her, “if I don’t see that suit by the time the new moon rises your brothers will be dead.”

Darcy shook off her rage at the Warlord as she steeled her resolve, she could do this, she would do this. As she walked into the forest she focused on her objective and by the time she got to her boat on the river she had a plan.

  
  


Now…

  
  


Darcy flies one quick loop over top of the Temple, using the suit to scout out all of Zhang Wu’s militia. There are two dozen men, armed to the teeth holding her brothers, the Temple Elders, hostage all over the central courtyard.  _ What’s to stop him from killing them once I hand over the suit? There is no option, I can’t fight that many men with guns so close to the Elders, I’m not fast enough to stop that many bullets and I have no idea how to use the suits weaponry, or even if it will work for me.  _ She lands in the training square of the temple where the Warlord is standing with the monks held hostage. 

“Well done Annchi, you have made your Elders proud today.” Zhang Wu says with a flourish as he come up to the suit, studying it and touching the armour. “Now take off the suit and we will leave you all in peace, you have my word.”

“Swear on your honour.” Darcy demands, knowing that the Warlord could go back on his word but not on his honour. Not when he does it so publicly in front of his men.

Zhang Wu tilts his head slightly and Darcy thinks for a moment he isn’t going to do it, but then he raises his hand and says, “I swear on my honour, that my men and I will do no harm to the monks, once you have handed over the Ironman suit.”

Darcy nods in compliance, but just as she is about to take off the suit, the display starts flashing and a loud voice snarks over the intercom. 

“If I wasn’t so damn mad that you stole from me I would be impressed! OK I am still impressed but you are in SO much trouble you little thief!” Tony Stark’s face comes on screen, staring her down, and his voice fills her ears, and from the looks of the Warlord’s face he can hear him too.

“Take the suit off now!” Zhang Wu orders her in english as his men hold their guns up closer to the Elders’ heads and some even point their guns at Darcy as they become agitated and fearful.

“I’m trying! He’s locked me out of the controls!” Darcy cries out in alarm, fearing for her brothers’ lives as she tries to exit the suit, she can’t even move her arms to try and rip the suit off her body.  _ Oh no oh no ohno ohnoohnoohnoohno.  _ Darcy begins to chant in her head in desperation.  _ I can’t let them get hurt! It’ll be all my fault! More innocent lives on my soul! _

“Oh yeah you have no chance of escape now you little cat burglar. What’s going on here?” The suit moves its head and Darcy is like a puppet inside as Tony scans the area. “Let me guess, you,” the suit points to the Warlord, “decided that it would be a good idea to threaten these monks,” the suit points at the Elders, “who I’m guessing are special to this little criminal here,” the suit points to itself and Darcy inside it, “and made her steal my suit to free them? That’s about it?”

Darcy is frozen to the spot, all her intense training in the Red Room and at the Temple never covered hostage situations where you were stuck inside a robot. 

Zhang Wu looks perplexed for a moment before reverting to his usual rhetoric, “give me the suit Tony Stark and we will not kill the Elders.” His men are moving in staggered motions around the Elders, pulling the monks tightly to the front of their bodies like a shield in between them and the suit but also darting glances up into the sky like they are expecting more to appear.

“Fucking warlords.” Tony scoffs back, “always trying to steal my tech. Ahhhhh no way Jose.” Is Tony’s reply and then all of a sudden a compartment on each shoulder of the suit rises up and a heap of mini-missiles rocket out and take down Zhang Wu and all his men before any of them can pull a trigger. 

Darcy has seen plenty of death in her past, so she knows that these men are all dead and that her brothers are safe. That’s all that matters to her right now, as she looks at the Abbott, and although he can’t see her face, her distress starts dissipating as his calmness feeds into her. The Elders move around the bodies lying on the ground to surround Darcy, thanking her, although it is a somber occasion as they all heard the Abbott tell her that she is not meant to return again. For her safety, but for more so for that of her brothers and the students, Darcy knows she has to respect the Abbotts wishes and never come back.

“Everyone good? Well now I’ve taken care of that for you, you can take care of something for me.” Tony says looking directly at Darcy through the screen and the suit shoots off into the sky. “You and I have a date, little miss robber, I’ll meet you in Hong Kong.” Tony signs off the suit and the display goes dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love you all you amazing readers, subscribers, bookmarkers, kudosers and commenters! :***


	3. Darcy Lewis Stark Industries Employee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony drinks some tea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The pure amount of interest this fic has garnered has me working on it far more often than I planned! Thanks for all the motivation you wonderful people!

_ Oh fuck! _ Is all Darcy can think as she tries to wrap her head around what just happened as the suit, with her still stuck inside, flies through the clouds heading to her ‘date’ with Tony Stark aka Iron Man aka a FUCKING Avenger.  _ Oh fuckity fuck fuck fuck! What is he going to do to me? What if SHIELD managed to keep hardcopies of photos of me and he recognises me? Because I know there isn’t a single picture of me online. Holy fuckballs what if Hawkeye is with him? I only met him briefly in New Mexico but a spy who’s literally known for his eyesight will definitely put two and two together. Faaarrrrrccccckkkkkkk! _

Darcy is so worked up from what happened at the Temple and the Avengers not only finding her, but finding her before she got the suit off (she had hoped they would find it once the Warlord had it), that her years of meditation training don’t come all that easily as she is forced to figure out a game plan. It has been a long time since she has been in the espionage business and in living the life of a millennial she has almost forgotten everything she was taught about how to process information and make plans under pressure from the Red Room. At least she knows that the virus she set up will either delete or blur all photos posted online to social media or other websites. With the selfie craze taking over the generation nowadays there is only so many times she can be the one taking the photo of the others or turning her head at the last minute before they get suspicious.

Darcy never scored top marks with her poker face, her eyes being to expressive of her emotions. So while her inner monologue of anxiety is ranting and she manages to keep her face impassive behind the mask, her eyes are telling the whole story to those who are watching. Her eyes get decidedly more jittery as the clouds clear and she can see the tall buildings of Hong Kong appear under her. If it were under any other circumstance Darcy would be enjoying the ride and the view.

The suit lands her at an empty outdoor seaside cafe towards the outskirts of Hong Kong. Tony Stark is sitting comfortably at a little table with 2 chairs and a pot of tea, watching the boats in the harbour. The suit walks her to the table and sits down across from him. The face panel slides up but doesn’t let her out.

“Thank you for making the time to meet me today little miss bandit, I know you must be quite busy.” Tony says somewhat dryly, he hasn’t even looked at her yet.

Darcy stays silent, thinking that it might be her best plan at this point. 

But then Tony leans forward and pulls her mask the rest of the way off, she tries to dodge away, but she can’t move her head, stuck in the suit like she is. 

“Annchi huh? You don’t look like an Annchi, more like an Emma or a Hannah. Funny, a little birdie is telling me your name is actually Darcy Lewis, assistant to Dr Jane Foster,” Tony says as he takes a sip of his tea and then makes a face dropping it back down on the table. Darcy now knows that Hawkeye is definitely set up somewhere with his sniper scope aimed on her face. Tony’s penetrating gaze never wavering from her eyes now he’s looking at her and not the boats. Darcy gets the feeling like he’s categorically going through all her features and engraving them in his memory. “So tell me Darcy Lewis, how’d you do it? How’d you fool my AI?”

“If I tell you...” Darcy has to pause to take a gulp, her trainers would be disappointed in her but the analytical part of her mind thinks it’s only a good thing for Stark to think she’s scared and out of her depth, even if it’s actually the truth. Darcy tries to make her voice sound more confident, “If I tell you how I did it. If I give you my tech. Will you let me go?” 

“Sure I will, I’m only interested in how you did it.” Is his reply as  he leans back and links his fingers behind his head. “You’ve returned my property to me in relatively the same condition so no harm no foul.”

“You don’t want to know why I did it?” Darcy says quietly, looking down at the table to make Stark think she is contrite.

“I know why you did it little miss crook.” Tony half smirks at her, “and if it’s any consolation I admire you for it. Now tell me how you fooled my AI into thinking you were Pepper!”

“I programmed the interface into my watch, it will be easier for me to just show you.” Darcy says, trying to move her arm, hoping he is distracted enough by the idea of new tech he will let her out of the suit.

“Oh gimmie gimmie gimmie!” Tony says as the suit abruptly stands up and disassembles around her. Darcy gets out immediately and takes the watch off handing it over to Stark who almost does a little dance on the spot. She is watching the suit reassemble and move off to the side, like a sentry watching his post. Darcy is careful to keep her front to Stark and the suit as she doesn’t want either of them to realise that she has her glocks tucked securely into holsters in the back of her pants under her shirt. She wouldn’t use them against Stark but she would use them to stop the suit if it tries to take her captive again. She knows there is someone else close by keeping watch, she can feel it now she’s out of the suit, but she hopes they are focused on her front and not her back.

All Tony really cares about is the Pepper interface, he seems to have completely forgot she’s there as he coos over the watch, muttering quietly to himself as he turns it over studying it.

“So… um… can I go then?” Darcy asks after a few minutes of him ignoring her.

“Yeah, yeah.” He gives her a distracted wave as he continues muttering to himself.

“Great! Um… OK bye!” Darcy says awkwardly, but just as she’s turning to leave she feels a rustle in the wind and movement against her neck.

“Stark may have said he would let you go but he wasn’t speaking for the rest of us.” A smooth female voice almost whispers in her ear. And before Darcy realises it she’s acting on instinct and twirling quickly into a crouch on the ground, pulling her guns out of their holster in her waistband to point at the Black Widow, who looks unimpressed and already has guns pointed back at her. They are so close their hands are almost touching. 

Darcy can’t hold back the, “Oh fuck it’s the Black Widow!” Semi-fangirl-sequel, semi-resigned-groan that escapes out of her mouth, and a light pink blushes across her cheeks.

The Black Widow was infamous in the Red Room, the single most perfect asset to ever be produced. The trainees were brought up on stories of her missions. When she went rogue the instructors were in an uproar for months. But no one could ever bring her back, they stopped sending other assets after her when they would always disappear too. Shortly after they stopped hunting for the Black Widow they changed the training program so the girls didn’t have to kill each other, punishments were no longer death or as painful and they were allowed to build friendships with each other. Darcy guessed the hope was that with the friendships it wouldn’t seem so bad so the trainees wouldn’t go AWOL like the Black Widow, and also so the Red Room had a larger pool of assets to utilise.

Tony was staring at them, shocked out of his focus on her watch. “OK for that I’m going to have to offer you a job at SI… and I’m going to have to  **insist** you take it.” Tony says as the women continue to stare at each other. A quinjet appears out of nowhere hovering gently next to them and the platform opens up as Tony walks towards it. “Come along Lewis, I’m sure the benefits package will make you a very happy little miss kleptomaniac.”

Darcy is focused on the Black Widow, who raises an eyebrow at her with a half-sardonic look on her face, as they are still pointing their guns at each other.   _ I might as well see what he’s got up his sleeve. It’s not like I have a chance in hell against the Black Widow in hand to hand combat anyway. And I can’t risk having to defend myself against her and them realising my abilities. _

“Well, why the fuck not?” Darcy huffs as she goes against all her training and shifts, opening up her back to the Black Widow, as she places her glocks in their holsters and turns to follow her new boss up into the quinjet, the Black Widow following close behind her. “Time for Alice to go back down the rabbit hole.” Darcy chirps as the platform begins to raise behind her.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, I love you guys xox


	4. Darcy Lewis gets the Grand Tour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is kinda a protective asshole. Tony has a heart of gold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The muse is keeping me pumping with this one thank you to all you wonderful readers!

Maybe she was the stupidest asset to ever live but Darcy was more than the weapon that the Red Room had tried to make her into. She refused to live by their ideals, kill or be killed. The Avengers had proven themselves to be willing to take in assets from the cold, Black Widow, the Winter Soldier even the Scarlet Witch, so maybe they wouldn’t try and imprison her.

The flight isn’t nearly as horrific as Darcy envisioned, in fact it’s pretty uneventful. Hawkeye was piloting the quinjet, and besides giving her a lascivious wink, that makes her roll her eyes, when she boards, he doesn’t look or speak to her again. The Black Widow joins Hawkeye in the cockpit the second the platform closes and they take off, also not sparing Darcy a glance throughout the journey. Although Darcy doesn’t blame them because the suit has her covered as it sits next to the exit.

Tony Stark aka Iron Man aka the mad scientist, as Darcy has now discovered, pulls up a digital workbench the second he’s in the quinjet and is scanning the watch into his complex system while talking to his AI in what is almost gibberish. Darcy is enthralled by the tech she is seeing, advanced beyond anything she’s ever dreamed of and steps closer to get a better look.

“Watch out little miss pickpocket, don’t want FRIDAY giving you an electric shock! She’s pretty pissed that you fooled her.” Stark is grinning as he says this as Darcy has stopped in her tracks.

“Miss Lewis, please ignore Sir, I would never behave in that way, even if I could.” The AI sounds somewhat peeved at her creator which makes Darcy crack a grin.

“I bet she’ll forgive you if you talk her through what you did integrating this watch with the interface you created of Pepper.” Stark pulls his face into what he must think is his puppy dog eyes expression. 

_ It’s pretty cute actually. _ So Darcy spends the rest of the trip explaining to Stark what she did to create the interface, how she got it into the watch and then how she tested it on different security systems around New York. Stark interrupts every second word, but instead of bothering Darcy he just reminds her of an excited kid so she handles him without issue.  _ It’s not like he wouldn’t figure this out eventually anyway, might as well stay on his good side.  _ Darcy justifies to herself.

 

…

 

Back at the Avengers Tower, Bucky is sitting in the communal kitchen with Steve, pouring over the files FRIDAY provided the team on Darcy Lewis the moment Barton identified her. An adventurer, a humanitarian, an intelligent young woman, who only appeared 5 years ago. Before that all that existed is a high school diploma, a birth certificate and a social security number. And this is highly suspicious to Bucky because someone like Darcy, would have joined clubs, political parties and sports teams from a young age. Also, if FRIDAY’s teachings of the 21st century are accurate, she is probably the only millennial in the western world not to have a social media account. The other thing Bucky thinks is worth noting is that Darcy Lewis is an excellent student, but not excellent enough to stand out on paper. She is always, perfectly sitting, in the top 10% of all her classes, never more, never less, with flawless accuracy. There is a lot more to Darcy Lewis than meets the eye, and he is going to make it his personal mission to find out everything there is to know about her. And since he was still on lockdown in the Tower it was going to be a better way to spend his time than triple checking the security every hour.

“Please excuse me Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes. Sir and the team are back from their mission now and have brought Miss Lewis with them.” FRIDAY announces.

“Did she fight back when they took her prisoner?” Steve queries.

“They didn’t take her prisoner Captain Rogers, Sir has hired her.”

“What?” Bucky is flabbergasted, “why did he do that?”

“Why does Sir do anything?” Bucky could swear he heard the sigh in FRIDAY’s voice. “ETA 3 minutes.”

Steve doesn’t say anything but Bucky can see his jaw working as he packs up the papers they have spread over the counter so Darcy Lewis doesn’t see that they were looking into her past.

“You OK Punk?” Bucky asks Steve.

“Fucking Stark.” Is Steve’s response.

 

...

 

Darcy actually has a lot of fun talking tech with Stark and in the end the trip goes by quickly. Before she knows it they’re landing and her stomach automatically starts knotting up with worry. She was never relaxed about potential trouble like most of her class at the Red Room, the majority of them even came to enjoy the missions and the fighting. Darcy never did. 

When the platform opens the suit powers back on and stands, waiting like a sentry again.

“C’mon little miss cat burglar, let me give you the tour.” Stark says as he leads her off the quinjet, the suit following behind.

“If the tour ends in a jail cell I’m going to be extremely disappointed in you.” Darcy quips as they enter the building, only half joking as she honestly wouldn’t be surprised if that were the plan.

“You think a thief doesn’t deserve to end up in a cell?” A strong confident voice directs her to a tall blonde man standing across the room they’ve just entered. 

“Yup that’s Captain Fucking America right there with his ‘America is disappointed in you’ voice.” Darcy’s mouth says before she can stop it. To the delight of Stark who begins to laugh with gusto.

“You’re alright Lewis.” Stark says as he slaps her on the back and begins the tour of the atrium style living area under the watchful gaze of Captain America.

This area is open and full of so much light from the glass that the buildings walls are all made of. From here Darcy can see the labs and what looks like a war room, that look down onto the living/kitchen/bar area. Stark is clearly proud of what he has designed as he shows her how to use the Stark appliances, including a coffee machine that looks like it was designed for a space station. 

As she is sipping from the biggest mug of coffee she has ever seen, Stark starts to lead her to his workshop, but they’re intercepted by Hawkeye holding a plastic tub like you see at the airport security.

“Sorry to interrupt the tour, but weapons are allowed on a trust system around here.” He says to Darcy with a gentle smile. “Can you please put everything into the tub.”

Darcy is aware of the Black Widow standing to the side, just out of her line of vision, ready to jump in should Darcy refuse.  _ Psht like I’m going to try and attack any of the heros of New York. Seriously I’d have no chance of winning a fight against any one of them let alone 4, even with my weapons. _

Hawkeye is still smiling gently at her as she puts her coffee on the counter and she slowly moves her hands under her the back of her shirt and pulls her glocks out with her thumb and index finger on the handle of each, moving carefully as she places them in the tub. Aware of the rigidness emanating off the Captain now, as he sees her guns for the first time, she moves even slower as she pulls out 3 knives from various places around her body and a small tool kit tucked into her right boot. With a considering look at Hawkeye she then pulls out her bag of knockout powder and her last knife, a ceramic one that is invisible to metal detectors and most other security software.

Hawkeye nods at her in recognition that she didn’t have to do that. So she decides to push her luck.

“Everything?” Darcy asks him a little cheekily, toying with the collar of her shirt.

Hawkeye snorts as Stark jokes back, “Sorry to wreck your vibe Lewis, but I think if we were to strip search you the Captain would have a heart attack.” 

Hawkeye leans in and stage whispers to her, “we have to be careful in his old age to not let his sensibilities be disturbed.”

Captain America shifts uncomfortably, “shut up Clint.” Is his best response as he rolls his eyes and his cheeks go a little pink with the teasing. 

Darcy almost feels bad for him so decides to stop the inappropriate flirting she’s thinking about with doing the sexy archer. And, unless she’s mistaken, and she’s not that often when it comes to romantic engagements, Hawkeye and the Black Widow seem to be very much a unit, very much a couple and Darcy does not want to get in the middle of that. But there is something missing from their dynamic which Darcy can’t put her finger on, so she folds that into the back of her mind for another day.

“Alright Lewis let’s carry on the tour I haven’t got all day!” Stark decrees as he grabs her coffee and gives it to her, almost pulling her up the stairs into the lab and workshop spaces.

“Sir, may I suggest you show Miss Lewis to her quarters where she can freshen up before you both get stuck in the workshop all night?” FRIDAY asks to Darcy’s relief, she is feeling grungy and a little overwhelmed, so having 5 minutes to clean up would be a comfort.

“Argh, fine.” Stark huffs as he takes Darcy to the elevator and the doors open, close and the elevator moves to what Darcy assumes must be the correct floor without a single button being pushed. He then leads to to a door, motioning for her to open it, and when she does her mouth drops open. 

“If this is my jail cell then I am quite happy thank you very much.” Darcy says as she walks inside to a huge apartment with open flow kitchen, dining, living space that is lit up from the sunset in the west, displayed through floor to ceiling windows. 

“Bedroom and bathroom are down the hall, I’ll be in the workshop when you’re ready Lewis.” Stark says as he heads out the door.

“Stark.” Darcy says softly and he turns back to face her waiting. “I’m not a thief.” She doesn’t know what’s come over her, but for some reason she just has to have him believe her.

“I know.” He half smiles at her as he closes the door behind him as he leaves. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As ever, let me know what you think you amazing people you! xox


	5. Darcy Lewis Meets the Bots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy tells Bucky off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Home sick = lots of writing and sleeping.

Darcy stares at the door, mentally preparing herself for it to not open when she tries the handle. She knows Stark said to come join him in his workshop when she was ready but she can’t help but wonder if this was all some elaborate plan to get her into captivity. When Stark had closed the door behind him she had made the conscious decision not to worry about it until it was time to leave. Darcy had headed down the hall and stared at the big bed with her eyes bulging out of her head for a minute, then showered in the shower big enough for 6 people. She was now dressed in some of the new clothes she found in the wardrobe in the bedroom that were all in her size, even the bra fitted perfectly, which was not an easy task. She figured that she had FRIDAY to thank for that, so Darcy decides to test a hypothesis.

“Thanks FRIDAY for the clothes, they fit perfectly.”

“You’re welcome Miss Lewis.” The AI responds immediately, confirming Darcy’s thoughts that she would be under constant surveillance. 

_ Well, it’s not the first time and at least this is by an AI and not a pervy goon.  _ Darcy wasn’t able to find any cameras in the apartment on her initial perimeter check but she doubted Stark would have something as low tech as a hidden camera. She wanted to ask the AI if the door would open for her but she didn’t want that weakness on record, so she takes a deep breath and pushes the handle. The door opens easily and Darcy refuses to rejoice out loud, instead doing a mental  _ FUCK YEAH I’M NOT A PRISONER! _ in her head. And if FRIDAY saw Darcy marginally boogy her butt in celebration, the AI didn’t say a word.

“Would you like me to direct you back to the workshop Miss Lewis?” FRIDAY asks.

Darcy is just about to decline her offer, she does have an eidetic memory after all, but she stops herself at the last minute as it’s important she try and act as normal as possible. “Thank you FRIDAY, I’m sure I would be lost for days around this maze.” Darcy says innocuously.

“Yes, when Colonel Rhodes visits he keeps on getting off at the wrong level. I don’t know why he won’t accept my help.” FRIDAY says with what Darcy swears is a hint of annoyance.

“It’s a male thing FRIDAY, they all hate asking for directions.” Darcy chuckles.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right Miss Lewis.” 

Darcy wonders if the AI is this open with everyone about each of the tower dwellers.  _ Might be a good way to do some innocent information gathering. _ She files that away for later, not wanting to seem pushy or suspicious on her first day.

“Follow the lights Miss Lewis and I’ll lead you to the elevator and then to Sir’s workshop.”

“Thank you FRIDAY.” Darcy says as she does what the AI tells her.

A few minutes later the doors to Stark’s workshop open in a whoosh of air and Darcy walks into chaos. A robot is trying to put out a fire, but spraying the fire extinguisher about a foot to the right of the actual fire, another one is hitting the fire with the bottom of a fire extinguisher, possibly making the fire worse as it fans the flames, while another with a dunce hat on it is just spinning in a circle making a weird siren sound of excitement, and Stark, well Stark hasn’t seemed to notice any of it and is intently focused on a hologram of her Pepper interface.

“What the fuck!” Darcy exclaims as she darts across the room, over to the robot hitting the fire with the extinguisher and wrestles with it for a moment over control of the extinguisher, before managing to break it free and spraying the fire, smothering it and watching it die. Once the last flame sputters out and everything in the radius is covered in foam, including Darcy’s shoes, she looks up to find Stark still focused on the projection. “Surely you’re not that unaware of your surroundings Stark.” Darcy shouts at him, who, at the sound of his name, turns round in his chair looking perplexed at Darcy in his workshop.

“Bonnie! What are you doing messing round with U, Dum-E and Butterfingers?”

“I am not messing around!” Darcy asserts, as the robot she can see is called U, tries to grab the used fire extinguisher from her, resulting in a mini-tug of war that U wins and zooms off to the other side of the workshop beeping merrily with his prize.

“Well, that’s what it looks like.” Tony retorts, raising one eyebrow at her.

“Your Difference Engine was on fire, I don’t know how the hell that happened, but your robots weren’t putting it out very successfully so I had to step in!” Darcy defends herself.

“Huh.” Tony says looking over at the smouldering pile behind Darcy, “FRIDAY why didn’t you put it out?”

“Because you disabled my capabilities in your workshop Sir, and then you went and manually unscrewed the smoke alarms and the sprinklers. You said that you didn’t have time to be halted by ‘nanny-state safety restrictions’ when you were focused on saving the world.” The AI responds with an indignant tone.

“Yep, that sounds like something I would do. Good job Capone.” Tony says before turning back to his display.

Darcy is used to being dismissed by geniuses, too focused on their SCIENCE! to pay attention to anything else, often including their own survival if Jane is anything to go by. So with a roll of her eyes Darcy decides to have a look around the lab, poking the bits and pieces Stark has lying around. The robots are now trying to clean up the debris from the fire, and just making more of a mess. She leaves them to it and begins searching through a pile of junk, pausing when she finds a radio. Pulling it out and turning it over she sees that with a little bit of work it will be running in no time. So she settles herself on the floor with a pile of Stark’s tools and gets to work.

 

…

 

“Hey Stark do you have time to look at my arm, I think it needs a tune up.” Bucky walks into the workshop but stops in the doorway as Darcy’s head pops up from behind the pile of metal she has collected. 

“What? I’ve been badgering you for weeks and now you come in?” Tony says confused as he rolls his chair across the floor to look at Bucky.

Of course the only reason Bucky is letting Stark near his arm is because he wants to get a better look at Darcy Lewis and FRIDAY doesn’t share any footage or knowledge of what’s going on in Stark’s workshop ever, so he has to go there himself. He just hopes Stark doesn’t blow it, although with the way he’s slyly winking at Bucky now and darting his eyes to the girl he wouldn’t be surprised if he just outright tells her.

“Yeah it’s been playing up and my basic knowledge isn’t helping it any.” Bucky tries to cover Stark’s idiocracy, “But if you’re too busy I can go see if Barton can help.”

“No no no need I’m free now.” Tony waves at Bucky to sit down, Bucky covering his smirk at Stark’s eager and obvious desperation. 

Stark goes to grab his tool kit, perplexed when he can’t find it, until Darcy goes and grabs it from under a pile of wires in the corner.

“Here you are Stark.”

“Thanks and you should call me Tony, it’s weird having a co-ed call me by my last name.”

“Well then call me Darcy.”

“Nah I like Doris more.” Tony says as he rolls his chair back to Bucky and indicates for him to place his arm on the bench. “You know like Doris Payne the jewelry thief?”

Darcy rolls her eyes, “yes Tony.” She sighs as Bucky smirks. Looking at the Winter Solider is awkward for Darcy, she never imagined she would be in a situation like this and he is unabashedly staring back at her with a smirk still on his face. Tony is completely in the zone, focused on the metal arm so isn’t any help with a distraction.

“So, um, I probably should apologise to you Sergeant Barnes? You know, for knocking you out like that.” Darcy stammers out while chanting in her head,  _ please don’t try kill me, please don’t try kill me. _

Bucky continues to look at her, his gaze never wavering from hers until she starts to shift uncomfortably under his scrutiny. “It’s OK Miss Lewis, you had your reasons.” A smile spreads across his face, changing his look from battle-hardened to debonair in an instant. “Anyway, it’s the first time I’ve ever been taken down so swiftly and so gently. I’ve got to admire that.”

“Oh.”  _ Wow, more like Winter McDreamy than Winter Soldier.  _ Darcy’s mind stops working at his smile and compliment, said smile growing larger every moment she is mute. “Oh, um, thanks.” Darcy stutters.

Bucky’s grin grows even wider as he decides to be audacious and lets his eyes wander around her body boldy. Taking in the plumpness of her lips, the shape of her bountiful bust, the curve of her waist, and the contour of her hips. He watches carefully as her nervousness disappears and irritation takes over. A trained asset would take advantage of the situation and flirt back with him, trying to get close to take his guard down. Turns out he’s in for a surprise.

“Hey, eyes up here buster!” Darcy scowls at Bucky as she clicks her fingers in front of his face, angry by his obvious and disrespectful perusal of her body. “Just because you are a super sexy superhero guy does NOT mean you get to forgot all basic decency and treat women like pieces of meat.”   
Bucky opens his mouth to apologise but Darcy is off ranting as she paces back and forth across the floor of the workshop.

“I GET that you probably have women throwing themselves at your feet, you probably had that happen before the war as well, I mean look at you, but STILL you do not act like that today's society.”

“I’m sorry.” Bucky jumps in as Darcy takes a deep breath ready to continue her tirade. “I just, I’m still learning how to interact with other people and I keep forgetting basic principles of civilisation.” Putting his best puppy-dog eyes on, Bucky hopes the reminder of his very well publicised past will get her to forgive him.

“Oh,” The wind goes out of Darcy’s sails as she deflates, remembering everything she’s ever read about the Winder Soldier and what he went through with Hydra. Definitely worse than anything she ever experienced. “Well treat me like your 21st century liaison then Sergeant Barnes because I will not let you forget!”

“I will, and call me Bucky.” He smiles humbly at Darcy and she smiles gently in return.

“How come I don’t get an apology Gru?” Tony demands, tuning back into the conversation around him.

“Your apology was getting the Pepper interface.” Darcy says sticking her tongue out at Tony.

“Oh yeah.” Tony replies, getting back to work on the arm. “Sweet deal.”

 

…

 

A few hours later Bucky has left and Tony is back staring at the watch, Darcy has moved on from the now repaired and working radio, to fixing a microwave.

“Hey Thelma, could you recreate this interface for me with a different person?” Tony calls across to Darcy, his voice deceptively innocent, immediately ringing alarm bells in Darcy’s head.

“Depends on the available graphics,” Darcy says carefully. “Who do you have in mind?”

“Natasha Romanoff.”

Darcy turns to Tony with a gape, “do you have a death wish?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm loving this story, there are a few twists and turns planned so I hope you all stick around :D


	6. Darcy Lewis is a Poisoner?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy gets to work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still sick, therefore another update!

After a huge debate Darcy finally manages to convince Tony that creating an interface of the Black Widow was not only dangerous to their health, but not feasible. “There isn’t enough coverage of her online anyway, I need not just pictures but film too. That’s why Pepper was so easy for me to create because there are recordings online of her from every angle possible.”

“Hmmm OK Louise, how about Rhodey?” Tony ponders, “could you do him?”

“Colonel Rhodes? Sure there should be enough coverage of him.” Darcy sets herself up at Tony’s display and starts working away.

A few hours later Darcy has set up the digital bones of the interface, now just needing to work it up with the physical watch, she turns to ask Tony for it and finds him passed out asleep on the couch in the corner of the workshop.

“What’s the time FRIDAY?” She asks quietly.

“6:37am Miss Lewis, you and Sir worked through the night.” The AI responds

“Yeah I do that sometimes when I get caught up in a project.” Darcy tries to make her chuckle sound self-deprecating, _they don’t need to know that I need a lot less sleep that the average human._ “Speaking of which,” Darcy fakes a yawn, “I’m exhausted and hungry, is it alright to leave him here like this?”

“Sir sleeps in the workshop all the time, normally in the chair you’re sitting in his face resting on whatever he’s working on, so the couch is a nice change. There is food in the communal kitchen down the stairs, if you would like to put in an order I can provide you whatever you need to your kitchen.”

“Thank you FRIDAY, I’ll put an order together for you later. Right now I’m starving.” Darcy lies again as she heads to the door, carefully edging around all the junk to make sure she doesn’t knock something and wake up Tony. Although from his snoring it sounds like you would need a buzzer louder than a freight train to wake him.  

In the kitchen she finds a freezer full of microwave meals, and sure, they are the good quality ones that actually taste like the food they are meant to be, but Darcy just can’t get the enthusiasm up to eat one. So she explores through the cupboards and finds what she needs, 45 minutes later she is smearing nutella over a hot banana muffin she has just pulled out of the oven. The muffin scorching hot, but it doesn’t bother her as she eats it with relish, ending up with melted nutella smeared over her face and fingers.

Just as Darcy is trying to clean her hands by licking the chocolate off them she hears the stairwell door open and the 2 super soldiers walk in, she is careful not to turn until one of them, she’s guessing the Captain _,_ coughs politely to announce their arrival. Darcy twirls around, a look of innocent surprise on her face. _Good god they look amazing, all muscled and sweaty and shit. I wonder if they have girlfriends or are together? Warmed each other up on a cold WW2 night? No! Bad brain! Do not go there. Oh yes, do go there. No!_

“Hi guys!” Darcy says super brightly, trying to distract herself from the perfection standing in front of her. “Did you just go for a run? Sorry if I’m in your way, FRIDAY said it was alright for me to come here.”

“It’s no problem Darcy, you’re not in the way.” Bucky says with his gorgeous half-smile. “We were just doing our morning workout in the gym.” It would have been so easy to flirt with him last night when he opened up the opportunity for her. The Red Room training had been right there in the back of her mind, egging her on to take that avenue into safety, into getting trust. But the Red Room wasn’t what Darcy was about any longer, and wherever possible she did the opposite of what she had been taught there. She knew in the long run, using whatever skills the Red Room had given her, would hurt her, not help her.

“You been doing some baking Darcy?” Bucky says with a smile, breaking her out of her thoughts as he leans over the bench making an exaggerated face as he sniffs the muffins cooling on the tray.

“Yeah, I hate premade meals, if you’re going to eat you should eat well, am I right?” Darcy gestures to the tray as she heads to the sink to wash her hands and plate. “Help yourselves guys. I’m not going to eat anymore.”

“Thanks Darcy.” Bucky says as he reaches for one but is stopped by the Captain’s hand on his arm.

“That’s not a good idea Bucky.”

“Don’t be a punk Stevie.”

Darcy looks up in confusion as she sees Captain Rogers stopping Bucky, his face hard and untrusting as he looks at her. It’s then that realisation hits. “You know FRIDAY was watching the whole time, she would have seen if I had put rat poison in the batter!” Darcy exclaims upset, as she throws the teatowel on the counter that she was drying her hands with and storms from the room, heading for her apartment. She hears an argument break out between the two as she reaches the stairwell and starts running up it, their voices following her.

“You saw the breakdown Dr Banner gave us of the ingredients in that homemade knock-out powder Buck! You know that if she had messed up the dose she gave you even a little it could have killed you!” The Captain is yelling.

“And I KNOW you saw that she grabbed me so I wouldn’t hurt myself by falling on my face!” Bucky is yelling back.

“Yeah, and I know that you know that she is hiding something Buck!”

“She’s not going to poison us Punk!”

“You don’t know that Jerk!”

“Yeah I do.”

“Put that down Buck!”

“Make me.”

Darcy hears a crash as she runs out onto her level and the door closes behind her.

_Why are you so upset Darcy? You know they have no reason to trust you. You STOLE from them. They are the enemies of Hydra and all other evil! Of course it’s smart for Captain America to be suspicious of you, the thief. You’ve not been in the Tower 24 hours and you’re already trying to feed the two super soldiers. They probably have to deal with kidnapping attempts three times a week! Hydra and Aim and even Aliens are probably desperate to get their hands on them and start reconditioning._

Darcy is pacing her apartment now as she works through her frustration. Knowing that the Captain’s concerns are justified and smart, doesn’t make it any easier on her. She fights back tears, not because she doesn’t want the AI to report on how upset she is, but because it’s a matter of pride for her. In the end Darcy takes a shower, as hot as the water will go, and falls into the huge bed. Whereas earlier she couldn’t have slept at all, now she is emotionally exhausted and falls asleep the moment her eyes close. _Why can’t I just be normal?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Absolutely blown away by the love this fic is still receiving. Adore you all xox


	7. Darcy Lewis vs Hawkeye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy hates to lose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your lovely comments and kudos xox
> 
> Just a reminder that all my work is unbetaed and it's just me double and triple checking :*

A knock on Darcy’s apartment door startles her, although she is expecting a delivery of groceries from the order she put into FRIDAY, that was less than an hour ago. “Who is it FRIDAY?” Darcy asks, looking at the ceiling, although she knows FRIDAY isn’t physically in the ceiling, it’s hard to stop because that’s where her voice comes from.

“Sergeant Barnes is at your door Miss Lewis.” the AI announces, “He picked up your groceries from the deliveryman in the foyer.”

“Thanks FRIDAY.” Darcy says as to walks over to the door, opening it and staring at the super soldier.

“I have your groceries.” Bucky says holding one arm up showing the overflowing bags he’s holding, there are even more in his metal arm by his side.

“Checked to make sure I didn’t order any bomb components?” Darcy snarks, wincing the moment it leaves her mouth. _He was defending you Darcy, stop being a bitch._ “Look, I’m sorry, that was uncalled for I know **you** don’t think I’m here to drug your food.”

Bucky waves away her apology as she steps back to let him inside. “Nah Doll I came to apologise to you for the way that punk behaved.” He carries all her groceries like they weigh nothing and puts the bags on the counter. “We’ve all read Tony’s mission report. We all know why you stole the suit. We all know that if you wanted to hurt us you could have done a lot more during your time in the tower while I was passed out.” Bucky steps closer to her and takes her hand in his flesh one making her look up at him from where she was staring at the ground. “We all know that if you had wanted to take me back to Hydra it would have been a simple thing for you to call in reinforcements the second I was on the ground. Stevie, he’s just strung out at the thought of me not being safe. It’s taken so long to get me back, he doesn’t think straight when it comes to me.”

“I don’t blame him. I get that he wants to keep his family safe.” Darcy says smiling gently at Bucky.

“Yeah well that’s no excuse for him talking to a lady that way.” Bucky scowls before smiling charmingly and winking at Darcy. “And I reminded him of that, repeatedly.”

Looking down at her hand, so little in his large one, Darcy feels more like herself than she has since the warlord took the monks hostage. She laughs as she thinks of the crash she heard, “Still able to take him down a peg or too huh?”

“Only when needed.” Bucky smirks, making Darcy’s stomach flutter a little at the sight. She lifts her hand from his as she places it on her hips and gives him a faux-glare.

“You know that in the 21st century the way you speak to a woman shouldn’t differ from how you speak to a man? That a level of rudeness doesn’t depend on what’s between one’s legs?”

Bucky grins as he leans against the counter, crossing his arms as he takes in Darcy. “You can debate this till the cows come home, Miss Political-Science major, but my Mother didn’t raise no fool and I’ll always be treating a lady like a lady.”

“Uh huh.” Darcy grins back, “so can you indulge me and answer a question I’ve wanted to know for a while, are you and the Captain a thing?”

“A thing?” Bucky looks confused as Darcy hides her cheeky smile behind her hair as she walks around the counter and starts to unpack the groceries.

“You know, like together...” She puts the bananas in the fruit bowl.

“You mean stepping out together?” Bucky says, his face shows shock momentarily but it’s not as aghast or repulsed as she had been expecting from a early 20th century man. In fact a smile is slowly spreading across his face. “You been having some thoughts about that have you?”

It’s Darcy’s turn to hide her shock as she turns around, pretending to organise her fridge as she pulls items from the bags and stacks them inside. “No, no, I was just curious as there are a lot of fans that theorise that’s why Captain Rogers did what he did to save you.”

“You know, a lot has changed in the 70 years I’ve been in and out, but I’m pretty sure you still don’t put your cornflakes in the fridge.” Bucky changes the subject as Darcy looks at the box of Cap’n Crunch she has just put next to the milk.

“Well there’s a logic to my madness Buckster, the milk and the cereal get stored together so it’s easier to find in the morning before I’ve had my coffee.” Darcy makes up as she closes the fridge door.

“Uh huh.” Bucky continues to smirk.

“Yeah huh,” is Darcy’s intelligent retort.

“What’s this?” He asks, gesturing to a pile of documents.

“Oh that’s my contract to work with Stark Industries, this is my copy, the SI lawyer took the other earlier to make it all official.”

“Congrats Doll, we should celebrate.” He grins cheekily, “not that I can go anywhere.”

“You’re a prisoner?” Darcy says sharply, upset for him.

“No Doll, no. I’m just under house arrest while they make sure all the triggers are gone from my head. Can’t have another Vienna. I’m OK with that.” Bucky assures her.

Darcy wants to ask if she’s under house arrest too, but she doesn’t know if she could handle the answer. So for now she’ll stick her head in the sand. “You never answered my question.” She says deflecting back to the whole Winter-Shield debate.

“Let’s make a deal,” Bucky says with a smile Darcy doesn’t trust.

“OK,” she replies warily.

“The reason I came to your door, beside to apologise, was to get you to come down to the training floor with me, there’s something there I’ll think you’ll love. If you come with me I’ll answer your question.”

Darcy isn’t sure of what he’s up to. The soldier isn’t showing any signs of deceit, only a little bit of excitement, but he is a world class assassin so Darcy can’t be 100% sure. “I might have to check on Stark since he’s technically my boss now.”

“Sir is still asleep Miss Lewis,” FRIDAY tells them, “even if he wasn’t, your hours are extremely flexible and you are not required to report to him unless he needs you.”

“Um, OK, sweet gig then. I guess we can go check out this thing.” Bucky waits as Darcy puts on some shoes and then follows him to the door where he holds it open for her. She rolls her eyes, smiling at his old fashioned manners, and the get into the elevator.

“To answer your question no, we ain’t a couple.” He says as the doors close. “I like dames, always have, always will.” The doors open and they stroll into the training area, Darcy pausing in awe to take in the huge space.

The floor is divided into huge sections with a weights area, a space with the machines you see in a gym, a boxing ring, a segment with mats, another with what looks like a dance floor with a barre and then a running track spanning all the way around the outside.The area seems to take up about 3 floors with it’s massive ceiling height, Darcy sees why when she sees a rock wall taking up one whole wall.

“Wow!” She breathes out, speechless.

Following her eyeline Bucky watches with Darcy as 2 figures leap from beam to beam, suspended up in the air the whole way across the ceiling. One is firing arrows as the other dodges lithely, cleverly using the uneven beams as obstacles for the hunter.

“They are pretty amazing.” Bucky says as he watches them with her for a moment before placing his flesh hand on her back  and gently moving to the rock wall with her, “thought you might want to see this.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so huge!” Darcy exclaims, standing right up to it and running her hands over a few holds. “Although the rock pattern is pretty basic, a long climb but an easy one.”

Bucky grins at her statement, “FRIDAY change it up!” He calls and the holds on the wall immediately disappear and new ones reappear with sections of the wall moving out so now the climber will have to scale over regions that are parallel to the floor.

“That’s more like it.” Darcy grins back at Bucky, rubbing her hands together like an excited child.

“What are you waiting for?” Bucky asks, “have a go!”

“Yeah? Where are the harnesses?”

Bucky lets out a guffaw, not a laugh, a full body guffaw. “Sweetheart, this is the Avengers training facility, these idiots don’t know what a harness looks like, let alone how to use one. Just go as high as is comfortable for you and I promise to catch you if you fall.”

“I won’t fall.” Darcy winks at Bucky with confidence as she toes off her shoes and begins to climb, making child’s play of the first bit. She had meant to take it easy, to not show off, but Darcy gets caught up in the freedom she always feels when doing something adrenaline inducing and before she knows it she’s about two stories up and at a horizontal section where her back is parallel to the floor. Pulling herself up she begins to huff, not because she’s not of breath, but because she knows someone is up on the ledge waiting for her and it would be suspicious for anyone to get there far and not be a little bit tired. As her head peers over the edge she sees Hawkeye perched there, grinning at her.

“You’re not half bad kid.” He says, “although your technique could use a little work.”

“Screw you, it’s perfect.” Darcy retorts back before she can stop herself.

Luckily instead of getting mad Hawkeye just chuckles. “Well I was gonna ask if you wanted me to give you some pointers, but if you’re perfect already maybe I should just challenge you to a race?”

“Oh yeah like I’m gonna race the Hawkeye and expect to win. No chance.” Darcy bites her lip to keep from accepting, she knows her natural competitiveness will show and she’s likely to slip up.

“We usually save our codenames for the field, and when we’re doing drills. Round here people call me Barton, or Clint, dealers choice.” Clint does a complicated twirl on the holds, pushing his body out to a 45 degree angle like a breakdancer, but in the air.

“OK now you gotta give me some tips.” Darcy says as she tries to recreate his move and then fumbles.

“I don’t think so little miss perfect technique. You too chicken to walk the walk now that you’ve talked the talk?”

Clint bobs his head as he talks, making Darcy groan in mock distastement, “oh dear god you are SO old.”

“You too scared to be beat by this old guy huh?”

“Oh hell no.” Once again Darcy’s mouth overrides her brain and she accepts his challenge.

“So the race is to the top, and then to back to the ground.” Clint says pointing with both his hands, showing off his leg strength as they perch on the holds. Darcy immediately starts figuring out the best pathway to take. “And because this old guy is so cool, and I don’t want you to say that I bet you cos I know the wall better, I’m gonna give you a head start. I’m not gonna move from this spot till you’ve gone all the way up and then halfway back down again at that red rock there.”

That was a huge headstart, almost a third of the race. “Aren’t you a confident little birdie?” She taunts, unable to help herself.

Clint lets out a snicker, “you’re gonna regret that.”

“See you at the bottom.” Darcy heads up the wall, going slowly, taking her time because she can, making it look like she’s conserving her energy. She makes it to the top in good time, even though she wasn’t rushing, she moves a bit fast in the downward, speeding up again when she passes the red rock.

“I might be old but you’re the one that moves like a grandma!” Clint teases as he races past her.

 _Fuck he’s fast!_ Darcy thinks as she wastes a precious second watching him move. _Of course he’s quicker than any of the world champs you climbed with Darcy he’s a fucken super spy Avenger!_ Darcy shakes herself out of her head and picks up her pace, moving quicker and quicker down the wall. She’s at the section parallel to the floor when Clint catches up to her, dangling like a fucking monkey as he takes the holds like rungs in a ladder.

“Need to tap out sweetheart?” He taunts as he swings past her.

“Bite me big bird.” Darcy sasses back, poking out her tongue. There is no way she can beat him going handhold to foothold down the wall. She looks down, it’s about a two storey jump. Darcy doesn’t even think it through, because if she thought it through she would have known it was a bad idea and it was just her ego wanting the win. But instead of thinking, Darcy just lets go of the wall, and drops.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Muhahahahahhaha what do you think happens next?
> 
> (It's already written, I just thought this was a good place to end this chapter)


	8. Darcy Lewis Knows the Jig is Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy bakes a cake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I love you guys so much, I'm doing another quick update :D

A two storey jump is more than manageable for a normal person, if they hit the landing right and roll they probably won’t even sprain an ankle. However most normal people don’t know this, and normal people also don’t willingly fall those distances. Luckily for Darcy, she doesn’t have to show off her not-normal-person skills, because true to his word, Bucky catches her.

“What the hell Darcy!” Bucky yells, Darcy can almost see the steam coming out of his ears like in the old cartoons.

“Put me down, put me down, put me down!” Darcy exclaims, wriggling in his grasp till he does what she says, and when her feet hit the floor she looks up at Clint still on the wall, turned and gaping at her, “I WIN!” She waves her hands in the air and does a little boogie to rub it in as Clint takes the jump himself, landing and doing a perfect roll, ending up standing right in front of her.

“You little cheater.” Clint accuses, his wide smile at her audacity taking the sting out of the allegation.

“Nah ah, you didn’t say anything about how we got to the ground.” Darcy sticks her tongue out at him.

“The assumption was that being we were on a rock wall and therefore having a **climbing** competition.”

“When you assume you make an ass out of you and me!” Darcy is having too much fun rubbing it in to Clint, that it takes her a while to notice Bucky glaring at them with his arms crossed and feet planted.

“Ahem,” Bucky fake coughs to get their attention.

“Uh oh.” Clint skedaddles off to where the Black Widow is leaning nonchalantly against the ropes of the boxing ring, leaving Darcy alone to face the angry assassin.

“Sorry I didn’t think and I trusted you to catch me?” Darcy semi-apologises as she tries to put on a sweet voice and doe eyes. Not the sweet voice and doe eyes that the Red Room taught her, but her own **real** sweet ‘please forgive me’ voice and doe eyes.

Bucky huffs with partial laugh shaking his head at her, “You are a real piece of work you know that? I thought you had seriously injured yourself.”

Looking closer, through the mask of neutrality he wears 99% of the time, Darcy can see that she’s really upset Bucky. “I am sorry Bucky, I knew you were gonna catch me but that’s no excuse for acting so reckless and putting you in that position.” Darcy drops the act and let’s him see that she is actually very sorry, walking closer and taking his metal hand in hers, he jolts when she laces her fingers between his and Darcy pauses, waiting to see whether it’s her touch, or her touching his metal arm that’s the problem. After a few moments his metal fingers curl back round hers. “C’mon, I’ll bake you a cake that will persuade you to forgive me!” She tugs his hand to follow her back to the elevators, swinging their hands in a friendly way as they walk.

“You know, I’m actually worried that you and Stark are gonna be hanging out, you two are already too similar.” Bucky cracks as the elevator doors open and the Captain steps out.

“Hi Buck.” He says, nodding at Darcy, “Miss Lewis.” Before his gaze is focused on their clasped hands.

Darcy drops Bucky’s hand immediately and steps away from him as he makes a sound of protest, “Captain Rogers,“ she replies formally, stepping around him and into the elevator.

“We need to talk Buck.” The Captain says, placing his hand on Bucky’s arm as he goes to join Darcy.

Bucky looks at the other super soldier before stepping back, “yeah OK.” He acquises, “Darcy I’ll join you in a bit. Go bake in the kitchen in the common area, it has a really well stocked pantry.”

Darcy’s face is uncertain, but she nods in agreement at Bucky as the elevators close and it automatically rises to the common kitchen. _You stupid idiot Darcy! You had to show off didn’t you? You had to win!_ _It’s not going to take much longer for the Black Widow or the Captain to figure out you’re Red Room. You need to own up. You need to be honest. Bucky will never trust you ever after this!_ She berates herself internally as she goes about getting the ingredients she needs for the cake and all the cooking utensils. If she throws a couple of plastic bowls onto the counter a little too hard in frustration, well then it’s between her and FRIDAY. While she does her baking she figures out how to tell Bucky that she’s from the Red Room because he is definitely the one she wants to tell first.

The cake has about 20 minutes left in the oven when the elevator opens and Bucky and Clint arrive laughing about something.

“That smells amazing kiddo!” Clint declares as he jumps to sit on the counter. Bucky pulls up a stool, rolling his eyes at Clint’s antics.

“Well it’s still got a bit to cook and then needs to cool before I can ice it and it can be eaten.”

“And it’s **my** cake Barton, so sweetening up Darcy here won’t help you with getting a piece.” Bucky smirks as Clint turns to him his mouth dropping open in mock hurt.

“Darce! C’mon sweetheart, you can’t let him do this to me!”

Darcy is assuring Clint that Bucky will share his cake, when the elevator opens again to show Tony sniffing the air, literally following his nose to the oven.

“Catherine! I approve of this direction you are taking your job in!”

“Catherine?” Clint mouths to Bucky who just shrugs back.

Just then the stairwell door opens and the Captain and Black Widow appear, each pulling up a stool to the counter.

“Are you doing a homemade dinner too?” Tony asks, his eyes pleading with Darcy, enough to make her laugh.

“Yeah sure boss, let’s see what I can do.”

Darcy is looking in the fridge when she feels the air move and instinctively she shifts to the side, covering her move with picking up a bag of baby spinach. She pretends to completely miss the knife now embedded in the back of the cupboard as she turns.

“How’s gnocchi?” She suggests to the room with a bland tone of voice and amicable smile. Tony nods, completely engrossed in his StarkPad leaning against the counter next to her, the Captain has his arm on Bucky’s shoulder, standing just behind him on the other side, the Black Widow has a magazine out at the end of the counter and Clint is looking mildly interested at the cake still baking in the oven, still perched at the opposite end to the Black Widow.

“How long till the cake’s ready?” Asks Clint, a one track mind as ever.

Darcy laughs a laugh she isn’t feeling, _They know._ “You’d think a world class sniper would have some patience.” She turns to Bucky, “hey you got a minute to maybe step outside and chat?” She desperately wants to tell him first.

“Yeah sure Doll.” He replies getting up from his stool, Captain Rogers moving his arm slowly off him.

Just as Darcy is about to pass Tony, to round the counter and head to the balcony with Bucky she feels the air shift again. She only has a split second to react, as this knife isn’t heading for her, but just past her shoulder to Tony, directly for his right eye, and he is completely unaware. So Darcy does what anyone with a conscience would do in this situation, and she grabs the knife, stopping it an inch from Tony’s eye.

“What the FUCK!” Tony exclaims, jolting back, knocking the containers on the counter over in his surprise as he stares at the knife Darcy is holding and then to a smug Black Widow, no longer pretending to read a magazine.

“Natalia! What do you think you are doing!” Bucky yells as he stomps towards the her, the Captain jumping up between them.

“Bucky she was just testing a theory, a theory that turned out true! Darcy isn’t who she says she is!” The Captain holds his best friend back as he beseeches him to see the truth.

“You risked my life on this theory!” Tony demands angrily.

“You risk our lives on your theories all the time,” Clint shrugs, “we trust you.” That seems to make Tony stop in his tracks.

Throughout this Darcy and the Black Widow haven’t taken their eyes off each other, Darcy sighs deciding to bite the bullet, perhaps literally. “Your aim has gotten shit in your old age Auntie, what would our instructors think?” She taunts the assassin in Russian as she throws the knife over her shoulder and into the sink.

The Black Widow’s eyes narrow as her smile becomes like that of a shark. _Maybe that wasn’t the smartest move._ Darcy has time to think before the Black Widow launches herself over the counter, intent on taking Darcy to the ground.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of you were right with what was going to happen on the rock wall, but did you see this coming? ;)


	9. Darcy Lewis vs The Black Widow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "And now the fecal matter has hit the oscillating blades." Thanks for that quote quadrad!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The response I'm getting for this fic makes me so excited all I want to do is write. I hope I was able to do this chapter justice! Thank you so much for your support! <3

“FRIDAY translation please? OH FUCK!” Tony calls as he stumbles out of the way of the two women, as they punch and duck and kick over the kitchen.

“Miss Lewis said ‘Your aim has gotten... ‘poor’ in your old age Auntie, what would our instructors think?’” The AI responds.

Clint let’s out a low whistle, “your girl’s got some balls! 20 bucks says the mini-widow gets a hit in.”

“Are you serious?” Tony asks, “I love my new lab monkey but seriously against Natasha? I’ll take that bet.”

“Don’t interfere Buck.” Steve warns, as Bucky takes a step forward towards the battling women, raising his arm to stop him, but thinking better of it at the last second, pulling back.

“Don’t push me Punk.” Is the stern reply he gets.

“Look out how they’re fighting Buck, they aren’t trying to take each other out. They’re testing each other.”

Bucky looks and  once he calms down and pushes the Soldier from his mind, he sees what Steve is telling him.

Natasha is solidly attacking Darcy, but only enough to make Darcy defend herself, none of the moves she is pulling would seriously harm the girl. It’s clear from their fighting styles that they were both trained in the same place, but Darcy has something more fluid, something more oriental in her movements. Whereas Natasha is a weapon, Darcy is a dancer. Darcy has yet to go on the attack, just blocking and dodging Natasha’s onslaught with the Black Widow yet to make a solid blow land. That is incredibly impressive, Steve and Barton, even Bucky himself have sparred with Natasha and gotten seriously hurt. 

Bucky can tell from the microscopic facial expressions that Natasha is displaying that she is both impressed and pissed. Impressed that Darcy is defending so well, but also pissed Darcy is defending so well, that she has yet to make an impact against the younger woman. This makes the Black Widow a bit frustrated, and she starts to push harder.

Darcy notices this, working hard not to let her opponent through, but remembering all the Red Room’s instructions she recalls the moves the Black Widow is making and begins to predict what is about to happen.

No one in the room notices the timer on the oven going off, or if they do, they don’t care. Until Natasha takes a chance on doing a powerful swinging kick, hoping to knock Darcy down, instead, to the surprise of everyone in the room, Darcy steps nimbly into the Black Widow’s space, rotating with her, and launches a forceful punch into the assassin's solar plexus, knocking her to the ground, winded.

You could hear a pin drop as everyone’s hearts seem to miss a beat in surprise, including Darcy’s. Tony pulls a bill out of his pocket and hands it to Clint, with his mouth gaping open.

“Well I don’t know about you guys.” Darcy says, turning her back to Natasha, admittedly somewhat foolishly but Darcy is determined, and walking to the oven and stopping the timer. “But I don’t like burnt chocolate cake.” She pulls the cake out and sets it on the rack to cool. The Black Widow is still sitting on the floor so Darcy makes another potentially foolish move and goes back to her, offering a hand up. The assassin takes it and Darcy is surprised not to find herself on the floor with a knife at her throat, instead the Black Widow nods at her in a sign of respect, before moving to sit back on her stool at the kitchen counter.

Tony is the first one to recover from the shocked stillness of the rest of the room. “Where the hell did you learn that Lucy Liu?”

“Clearly the Red Room, like Natasha.” Steve answers for her.

“There was a different style in there though that the Red Room doesn’t teach,” Clint turns to Darcy, “The monks, it was a martial arts temple?”

“Oh that makes sense then, cos that was some serious Jackie Chan/Bruce Lee shit.” Tony says, not giving Darcy a chance to answer, as he moves his hands in a cheap imitation of a karate chop.

“So who sent you to us then Miss Lewis, if that is your name?” Steve asks crossing his arms and glaring at her.

“The Warlord sent her Rogers, we’ve all read the mission report.” Clint answers stepping in between Steve and Darcy, facing the Captain with his stance mirroring his, acting as a sort of shield for Darcy.

“Don’t forget I offered her a job, so technically I’m the one that sent her here.” Tony defends Darcy as he too moves between her and the Captain.

Steve is looking stunned that his teammates are advocating for her, he looks to Natasha who just smiles at him slightly and shrugs. “The Red Room was decommissioned years ago, I’m guessing she escaped before then. I wouldn’t mind hearing your story Darcy, when you feel up to it.” Steve isn’t the only one shocked at the Black Widow’s soft and gentle voice as she makes her request of Darcy.

Throughout this whole discussion Darcy and Bucky haven’t said a word, Darcy is looking at the ground near Bucky’s feet, scared to look up and see the disgust and hatred he will surely be displaying. But Bucky is looking directly at Darcy with the complete opposite of that on his face. He moves to her, gently putting his finger under her chin and pulling her face up so she has to look him in the eye.

“You escaped from the Red Room?” Bucky asks her quietly.

Darcy nods, a single tear escaping from her eye when she sees he doesn’t hate her. “A long time ago,” she whispers back.

“Clever girl,” Bucky says as he pulls her into his arms, laying a kiss on the top of her head. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Darcy’s body trembles as she holds back a sob, unable to process the emotions going through her with his simple acceptance. “I had decided to tell you, I was just scared.” She murmurs into his chest as he holds her.

“I know Doll.” Bucky looks over her head at Steve with anger in his eyes for how his best friend has been acting. Steve, for his part, is hanging his head in contrition, the remorse clear in his eyes as he watches the two together.

“Natalia, you risked a teammate on your hunch, was it worth it?” Bucky questions in Russian.

“I risked nothing,” she replies, also in Russian.

“Translation please FRIDAY!” Tony calls but the assassins ignore him and the AI as it repeats their conversation in English.

“I saw how she caught you, how she put a pillow under your head. How she took care of Stark, like she did in the reports and footage we have of her looking after Dr Foster and Dr Selvig. In the attack in New Mexico, she risked her life to save the animals in the pet shop.” Natasha continues in Russian, counting off her reasoning on her fingers, “there was never any risk. I knew she would protect Stark because she had already adopted him into her care, just like she did with Dr Foster.”

“Adopted me? Pssht.” Everyone ignores Tony.

“What if she didn’t have the skill to stop the knife! What if she tried and failed! You would put that on her conscience?” Bucky accuses. Darcy can feel him vibrating with anger at the Black Widow and she tentatively rubs his back, trying to calm him.

“You saw the speed of her reactions, her ability, when you surprised her, when I surprised her, how she decided to beat Barton on the rock wall. Again no risk.” Natasha scoffs, completely unconcerned.

Darcy is as quiet as a mouse during this exchange as she is surprised and feeling very warm with how ardently Bucky is defending her, but on the other hand she does actually agree with everything Natasha is saying. And if someone had entered her family unit, showing signs like she did, she would probably have done something similar to draw them out. Maybe not risking someone’s life on it, but somehow she would have got to the bottom of it.

“It’s OK Bucky,” she gives him a fierce look as he goes to argue with her, “no, I’m not saying they did it the right way. But I understand why she did what she did.” Darcy pulls out of Bucky’s arms, feeling bereft of his touch immediately so she takes his metal hand in both of hers. Looking at the Captain she speaks in English now, “I understand that you may have felt pushed into a corner, with everything Bucky has been through, and everything you have been through to get him back. To have an unknown, come in and seemingly threaten him, I may not agree with it but I understand it.” 

“You’re not Hydra.” The Captain states, rather than asks, but Darcy feels the fury and indignation travel up her spine as she steps towards him, poking her finger into his chest.

“I’m Jewish you douchenozzle! I have forgiven your rudeness to this moment Captain Rogers, because I have made allowances for your emotional distress regarding the treatment of your best friend. But from now on you better watch it or I will make you regret it.”

The super soldier raises his hands in repentance as Tony claps his hands and Clint whistles in encouragement, both enjoying seeing their new friend stand up for herself.

The Captain opens his mouth, to apologise maybe, but Darcy never finds out, as the Avengers Assemble Alarm goes off and quickly they all disappear to the Quinjet, to go face the next villain. Leaving Bucky and Darcy alone in the common area, still holding hands.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? xox


	10. Darcy Lewis vs The Giant Robot Squid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy learns Bucky has some skill with 'sugar arts' aka he is good at decorating cakes ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for some fluff, some plot and a fight scene.
> 
> P.S. I'm not a scientist

“Do you miss going on missions with him?” Darcy asks Bucky, looking at him over the three layered chocolate cake they are decorating together with chocolate buttercream icing.  _ Oh wait, is that a bad question to ask? _ They had been talking about Bucky’s time with the Howling Commandos but Darcy feared this question was too fresh for Bucky to be dealing with. 

She is knocked out of her internal anguishing with Bucky answering easily. “I miss the action, knowing that I’m doing good, making sure that I can be there to stop Stevie from doing anything stupid, or when he inevitably does, that I’m there to bail him out.” He pauses and looks up from his careful placements of silver pearls in an intricate pattern around the base. Darcy discovered his knack for this earlier and being incredibly impressed by his ability has put him in charge of the design, and he seems to be finding the job extremely calming. “I don’t miss the killing. I mean if I get a chance to take on Hydra, I will snap all of their necks, but I don’t really consider those people human, they’re monsters. So it’s different.” 

Darcy is nodding in agreement, “I’m the same, I love sparing, the excitement of the challenge, but I hate taking lives. Although if anyone hurts my people, all bets are off.”

Bucky smiles at her, seemingly completely in tune with what she’s saying. “If you ever want to spar, I’d be keen to train with you, you could probably teach me a few things. I know most of the team probably would enjoy the chance to drill with a new style of fighter too.” 

Darcy focuses on her piping icing around Bucky’s design, as his smile and compliment make a light blush cross her cheeks. “That could be fun, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Bucky presses curiously. 

But Darcy deflects with another question. “Do you think… Do you think that if someone has certain abilities, like for example Captain America.” Darcy shifts in her seat, trying to make this question as non-obvious as possible but is acutely aware of how intensely Bucky is watching her. “Take the Captain, do you think because of his abilities that working with the Avengers, saving the world and hunting Hydra, that it’s something he  **must** do? Rather than something he does because he wants to and he can stop at any point he chooses too?”

Bucky mulls it over for little while, Darcy has almost given up hope of an answer when he finally speaks. “I think it’s up to the individual. I think just because Steve signed up for the serum doesn’t mean he has to dedicate his life to fighting evil, he has done more than enough already. He could settle down and get married and raise a family and never throw another punch again. But the thing is Doll, that’s not something Steve will ever choose to do, he is and has always been a fighter and destroying Hydra is his personal mission. Even without the serum he’d be out there doing whatever he could.”

Darcy is silent as she processes what Bucky said, she is about to ask another question when Bucky interrupts her. “So what’s your favorite colour?” He diverts the conversation to nice non-avengery things making Darcy obviously relax and pick her piping bag back up. 

“Red.” Darcy answers empathically, “like a rose, or watermelon, or the English telephone boxes or your star.” She points to his arm, before going a little shy and ducking back down to concentrate on her icing.   _ Jeez Darce, you didn’t have to explain what red was, the guy has seen red before you idiot.  _ “How about you?” She asks back.

“Blue.” Bucky answers immediately, “just like your eyes.” And before Darcy can reply he scoops a bit of icing from the bowl on his finger and taps it on her nose.

“What!?” She laughs then she quickly leaps forward, giving him no chance to dodge, and rubs the icing off her nose and onto his cheek. Both giggling they pause, their heads shifting closer. Darcy’s focus flicks between his blue eyes, intent on her own, and his mouth, in the slightest pout as it moves towards hers. She can see his gaze move to her lips, and she licks them delicately, readying them for what is about to happen.

“Please forgive the intrusion, Sergeant Barnes, Miss Lewis, but the Avengers require your assistance.” As the AI speaks, Bucky and Darcy jump back like they’ve had a bucket of cold water thrown over them. Which essentially they have, as Darcy watches the professional mask of the soldier shutter down Bucky’s face.

“What’s wrong FRIDAY?” Bucky demands as he heads to the door, Darcy following behind quickly, cleaning her face with a paper towel she grabbed, offering it to Bucky so he can wipe the icing off his cheek.

“A giant robot squid is attacking the city, and through a series of surprise attacks is managing to do a lot of damage.” The AI explains as they follow the pathway it lights up sending them to the tactical room, Darcy pauses, somewhat in awe, as she looks at all the weapons available.

“A giant robot squid? Where’s the Hulk?” Darcy questions as she quickly picks up her glocks, extra ammo, and straps on her knives. She sees a double edged sword hanging on the wall, very similar to a Katana blade, like the one she practiced with back at the temple. Going on impulse she grabs it and straps it on her back.

“Dr Banner left New York the day Miss Lewis moved in.” FRIDAY tries to put it tactfully, “The Doctor was uncertain how he would respond to a... ‘new housemate’ being in his living space.”

_ You mean potential Hydra agent, _ Darcy thinks as Bucky nods his approval at her choice of weaponry.

“Dr Banner decided it would be best for all involved for him to have a retreat while the team got to know Miss Lewis. This leaves you as the closest back up, the team from Washington were already dealing with another incident so will not get here for another few hours.” FRIDAY continues, “I will provide you a more thorough briefing on the journey there.”

Bucky has put on his gear, is checking his rifle, and loading his belt up with a few grenades and other Stark tech. Darcy watches as he transforms into the Winter Soldier. He hands Darcy a comms unit that she places in her ear, she checks the frequency and then nods at Bucky that she’s ready to go, before heading to the helipad on the roof. The Stark-Helo that is waiting for them, ready to go, is self piloted, lifting off immediately as soon as they sit down. Although Darcy could fly it herself if she needed to, and she knows Bucky could too.

20 minutes after FRIDAY had first interrupted their cake decorating session they are on the ground staring at a chuck of metal as big as a house. Tony flies over in his suit to greet them. 

“That’s the thing that’s proving difficult for you to beat?” Bucky asks with disbelief.

“Oh you laugh now, but wait till it gets it’s tentacles unwrapped from its core and decides to crush you.” Tony replies deadpan, Darcy winces as she sees a dent in Tony’s side armour. “Cap is trying to come up with a plan to attack the core next time it unravels, I haven’t had enough time to scan its structure properly yet so we’re flying blind here.” He zooms back up into the air, hovering above the metal lump.

“Bucky, I need you on the north facing roof at your 3 o’clock with your rifle aimed at its centre.” Darcy hears Captain Rogers’ order through her comm, because this is definitely the Captain speaking, different from how he speaks around the Tower. Here, he is the one in charge, no question. “Miss Lewis, I need you to clear the surrounding buildings of any left over civilians through the building back entrances. Stark will scan and tell you where to find them.”

“Ten-Four.” 

She responds the same time as Bucky says, “Affirmative.” They pause, sharing a look for a microsecond, before turning and running in opposite directions.

Darcy rushes past the first building as Stark tells her over the comms it’s empty, the second building she gets to he sends her to the third floor. She finds a single office worker hidden under his desk, frozen in fear, clinging on for dear life. It takes a hard slap but it breaks him out of his stupor and he quickly follows her down the stairs and into the back alley where he sprints like mad away from the action and toward the police barricades. She empties two more buildings of people before everything on her side of the street is empty and she rushes across the road to start down the other side. Just as she’s entering the final building she has to clear, with at least five people huddled together on the ground floor, the robot wakes up and Darcy sees why back up was needed.

It’s tentacles unravel from around its core, and within seconds have smashed through the building Darcy removed the single office worker from. It then shoots a tentacle up into the sky, making Tony do some quick maneuvers to avoid being carved in two. His propulsion rays are apparently useless against the metal as the tentacle keeps stabbing at him. She hears a rifle shot and then a ding as it hits the core of the squid-thing, followed by a number of exploding arrows but there is no reaction that it has affected the robot. Then, just as quickly as it unraveled, its tentacles wrap back around itself and it goes still.

“Lewis, civilians!” Captain Rogers instructs over the comms, breaking Darcy out of her bewildered daze as she hurries inside to do what she’s meant to be doing. She finds the group clustered together in the huge industrial fridge at the back of the restaurant on the ground floor of the building. 

“As great as this is for a game of hide and go seek maybe you’d like to go somewhere a little warmer? This way everyone.” She directs them out the back of the building and they all race off down the alley toward the police who are cordoning off blocks to stop curious public and intrepid journalists from getting any closer. Once the last person has crossed the barrier she gives the all clear. “Ten-Twenty Four.” She says over the comms.

“Seriously Lewis, we’re not all police, we don’t know what all these numbers mean.” Tony snarks at her over the comms.

“It means all clear.” Hawkeye translates.

“We need to figure out how to stop this thing!” Captain Rogers declares, “we haven’t even managed to make a dent.”

“How did the electrocution go?” Darcy asks as she heads back to the street.

“My bites did nothing to it.” The Black Widow answers.

“Well it’s metal right?” Darcy asks again, scanning the closed up robot from a distance.

“Well some sort of alloy but the progression of the electric current didn’t get very far and the shield hasn’t made a dimple.” Tony replies.

“So… water?” Darcy urges, as she runs to the fire hydrant in front of the building she’s just come out of.

“Yes!” Tony yells, “break the fire hydrants and pool the water around the squid, then we can electrocute it.”

“I don’t have any bites left!” The Black Widow calls.

“We’ll use the power line then, Stark can shoot it down once the robot is sitting in a puddle. Lewis, get that hydrant next to you, I’ll get the one across the street.” The Captain instructs.

“Aye aye Captain.” Darcy hears a few sniggers to her response. She has a moment of glee as she pulls the sword out of its sheath on her back, seeing the gorgeous metal glint with the sun and she feels the familiar weight in her hands. It swings down cutting through the nozzle of the hydrant like it’s butter. Water gushes out into the street, heading towards the robot. She jogs away putting lots of space between her and what’s about to be a very deadly area shortly. She can see the Captain slash through the hydrant on the opposite of hers with his shield before also moving away from the area, running towards her.

Suddenly the robot wakes up again, and a tentacle zooms at the super solider. 

“ON YOUR LEFT!” Hawkeye yells into the comms and the Captain dodges at the last microsecond, and instead of the tentacle slicing him through the middle it misses him by an inch. It quickly changes direction and knocks him on the head, he goes flying and lands on the ground, not moving.

Darcy starts running towards his prone body. Voices are screaming in her ear for the Captain to get up as the tentacle raises. Stark is trying to get to him but the other tentacles are attacking the Avengers as a whole and there is no way through. There is no time to think as a tentacle rears up and plunges down, preparing to smash the Captain like a bug. Darcy jumps on top of him and raises her hands just as the tentacle reaches him. 

A dome of white light appears just beyond the tips of Darcy’s fingers, it surrounds her and the Captain and it stops the tentacle in it’s tracks. 

“How’d you make that force field?” Stark demands, distracted for a moment by glow coming from her.

“The power line Tony!” Darcy screams at him, as the tentacle rebounds off the force field, and comes down again, slamming against it hard. “Wake up Rogers WAKE UP!” She yells at the Captain who is passed out cold. 

“Sir, Captain Rogers internal injuries, are deadly for a normal human, and the internal bleeding needs to be stopped immediately.” FRIDAY says over the comms.

“The water is getting close to them Stark!” Bucky shouts.

“Fuck!” Darcy exclaims as she moves one hand down to press against Steve’s chest, and for a split second the force field disappears and the Captain becomes luminous.

“What the…?” He exclaims as he wakes up, completely healed, confused with seeing Darcy sitting on him, even more confused when she quickly takes her hand off his chest and a white vibrant bubble appears around them.

“Welcome back Cap.” She smiles exhaustedly, drained from exerting so much power. The tentacle hits again, and this time she is physically jolted from the force of the blow, falling back onto the Captain.

“TIMBER!” Tony hollers and Darcy hears the screeching of the power line falling.

“Barnes no!” Hawkeye shouts.

“The water is too close, run Stevie!” Bucky yells, closer than before.

Darcy looks towards his voice, her vision dulling as her capacity to keep the force field going dwindles. She feels wind against her hair as the Captain picks her up in his arms and runs, her sight wobbly, she sees the tentacle coming at them again. All of a sudden a dark figure jumps up and is slamming into the tentacle pushing it off their course, there is a hum, and a spark where the two meet. Then everything falls silent.

“BUCKY!” Steve screams, they quickly change direction, her head almost snapping with the intensity of the turn, as he sprints them to his best friend.

“I cannot detect Sergeant Barnes’ heartbeat Sir.” FRIDAY intones through the comms.

Steve stumbles to his knees, Darcy lands on the ground next to Bucky’s body. She senses the others running to them, she tries to crawl, but too weak to move herself, she flops forward on top of Bucky, raising her hand to his heart, and pushes everything she has left, and more, into him. The exclamations of surprise from the others barely register as Bucky is engulfed in a glow.

“Heartbeat steady.” FRIDAY declares, as Darcy’s head falls down on his stomach, her eyes open, unseeing and unblinking. “Sir, Miss Lewis is going into cardiac arrest.”

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it wasn't clear, Bucky hit the Tentacle just as the power line hit the water so he was blasted with the electricity the same as the robot.
> 
> This chapter has been 2 years in the making, ever since I created this character I was always working on how she would reveal herself to the Avengers. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it and that you don't hate me :P xox


	11. Darcy Lewis: The Lazarus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's opposite day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much love for you readers! I cannot get over the hundreds of people that have subscribed to get an email when I update! I'm so floored that you are all enjoying this story as much as I am. xox

Darcy Lewis has died many times in her life, but none of those deaths ever lastest long.

Darcy opens her eyes slowly, peering around the room discreetly. She had actually woken up about two minutes ago but the strange noises and smells made her cautious about announcing her consciousness before she had a better idea of her situation. She’s in a place she doesn’t recognise, she looks around without moving her head, she’s in a hospital room, that has cameras. _Well that’s never a good sign_. There is a door, but the lack of windows makes her feel anxious, the lack of Stark tech makes her feel almost downright panicky. _Guaranteed Tony would have his med-bay in the tower stocked with Stark tech. Oh fuck where am I if this isn’t the tower?_ There is a heart rate monitor to her left, next to a defibrillator machine, there is a IV bag hooked up, but not attached to her, the end dangling on the edge of the bed next to her arm, leaving a small puddle as it drips. _Surprising they didn’t try use more tape to keep it in._ Darcy sits up and plucks off the heart rate monitor, turning it off before it can make any noise. She swings off her bed, glad that she’s in simple cotton pajamas rather than a hospital gown. Pausing, listening for the sound of guards running towards her, she is surprised when she hears nothing. Opening the cupboards she searches for a weapon, finding nothing suitable but a bedpan, _beggars can’t afford to be picky,_ she grabs it, and then grabs the needle from the IV bag. Darcy makes her way to the door, prepared for it to be locked, getting ready to use the needle to pick it open, she’s surprised when it opens easily with her hand on the knob. Peering out in the corridor she sees a few people in uniform walking away from her, as soon as they turn the corner she pops out of the room and darts the other way down the hall, grabbing a doctor's coat off the back of a chair, and leaving the bedpan in it’s place, on the way. She shrugs the coat on as she rounds a corner, carefully checking to make sure there is no one there. She pauses at a fire evacuation plan on the wall to get an idea of exits, her stomach drops as she realises where she is.

 _FUCKING SHIELD!_ On their helicarrier no less. The second the Captain America vs SHIELD/Hydra battle was televised was when Darcy quit her work with Jane, under the pretense of focusing on her own career. That whole mess made her realise how close to being cut open alive, like a frog in a science class, she was. Darcy is not happy to be anywhere near a base of SHIELD operations. She takes a moment longer looking at the map before deciding on her departure Plan A and then jogs to a stairwell, opening the door straight into the Black Widow.

“You just made me a lot of money.” She says to Darcy in Russian.

“What did you do? Did you sell me out to SHIELD?” Darcy replies suspiciously, as she steps back, looking around, preparing for a number of hostiles to appear and try take her down.

“Tony bet me that you would go steal a jet to escape. I knew that was too high risk for you.” The Russian gestures for Darcy to follow, stopping and turning back when Darcy doesn’t accompany her right away. Her features soften as she sees Darcy’s uncertainty. “Never fear _solnyshko,_ you are safe with us.”

“SHIELD isn’t exactly known for it’s harmless approach to people with abilities.” Given no real alternative at this time Darcy decides to follow her down another corridor.

“Not SHIELD, us, the Avengers.” The assassin clarifies as they walk and she opens a door revealing a conference room with the team sitting or standing on one side of the huge table, still in their tac gear from the fight, except for Tony who’s in a tshirt and jeans. There is a black man in a black cape and a black eye patch on the other side of the table, glaring at everyone. Darcy managed to decrypt enough of the SHIELD files posted online to know that this was Director Fury.

 _Bucky!_ Darcy sighs internally in relief with him being up and about, stepping towards him but stops in her tracks seeing him standing in the corner, arms crossed in a defensive position, face shuttered, eyes guarded.

“Well now the Sleeping Beauty has arrived we can get started.” Director Fury says rudely.

“And here I was thinking I was the only one who can come back from the dead.” Darcy retorts, unable to focus, as all her attention is on the clearly upset Bucky. _He hates me for not telling him everything, he hates me for being a freak._

“And I’m not the only one with a myriad of secrets it seems. Tell me Miss Lewis, how long have you had these abilities? Are you a mutant? Did your foster parents know about them? Are you an inhuman? Or did Thor give them to you? Some sort of Asgardian gift for his lightning sister? No one else seems to know that you were anything more than normal till today.” The Director fires questions at her, but Darcy is just relieved and hopeful. Relieved that the Avengers haven’t told SHIELD about her Red Room history, because it is clear that the past she created is still holding up under scrutiny. And hopeful, that because they haven’t ratted her out, it means that they aren’t holding onto any resentment about her not being completely honest about her abilities.

“Yes, and like you, I plan on holding onto those secrets.” She replies, distrusting of the Director and his motives.

“We tried to take blood, but while you were asleep your body was healing too fast for us to get any, nor would the IV needle stay in, but looks like you don’t need it. I’d like to take some blood samples now that you’re awake and more in control.” Fury doesn’t ask, he orders, and Darcy can see she’s not the only one bristling at his assumption. She raises her finger slightly, before Tony can jump the table, letting the team know this is her battle to fight.

“No need, you will find nothing in my blood.” She replies, crossing her arms, letting the Director see her certainty of this.

“Miss Lewis, your abilities, they could change the world. I’m going to have to insist that you work with us on this, for the greater good.” Fury presses, jabbing his finger into the table.

“I will have to be dead for you to take my blood and trust me, I’m incredibly hard to kill.” Darcy narrows her eyes at him, letting him see a glimpse of the warrior. She follows it up with “I’ve tried many times in the past to use my blood to see if I can pass this power on or store it up to be used for healing in times of mass need, but it isn’t my DNA that gives me this power.” _But now isn’t the time to share how I got my power, not around SHIELD when they might decide to experiment on me._

“Well we have the best scientists in the world here on this helicarrier, think of the ramifications if they can recreate your ability! I’m sorry Miss Lewis but I cannot let you leave.”

“Director.” The word is quiet and all the more powerful for it. Coming from the Captain it is all the more authoritative. “You will not keep her against her will, Miss Lewis is not a lab rat for you to run tests on.”

“Yeah I’m a lab monkey not a lab rat!” Darcy interjects, causing Tony to snort.

“Let’s say you did manage to keep her here, against her will, against **OUR** will.” Tony says idly, a dangerous tone from him. The idea of Fury being able to do something with the Avengers prepared to stop him was laughable. “Darcy is a Stark Industries employee, and we have the best lawyers in the world, and her DNA will be tied up in court for the next hundred years, before you or your little scientists get your paws on it.”

“You are all being deliberately obtuse, letting your feelings for your little Guardian Angel cloud the logic. She can **HEAL** people, we can save lives, millions of lives, if we just understand her abilities.” As Fury continues to argue, Darcy gets a little anxious that they might see the his point. She carries the guilt with her every day that she’s not out there saving lives, the monks helped her get better with dealing with her inadequacies but it’s still a sore point. But she really doesn’t wanted to be locked up… again.

“You have no right to hold her here, and you have no ability to do so.” The Captain says, standing up from his chair and staring down at Fury.

The Black Widow goes and opens the door to the hallway and Clint strides out, grabbing Darcy’s hand and leading her with him, the others follow as Darcy hears Fury yelling after them.

“His name really is quite fitting isn’t it?” She says to no one in particular, although Clint squeezes her hand in agreement and Tony puts his arm round her shoulders with another snort of laughter. She feels the safest she has in years as they all enter the quinjet and it takes off, with Clint and the Widow piloting and the Captain and Bucky standing like sentries at the door, watching to make sure they aren’t followed as it slowly closes.

Darcy is so busy looking at Bucky, who is busy looking everywhere else but at her, she misses Clint’s question the first time he asks it, but is startled into awareness when Tony elbows her side.

“Huh? What?” She stammers, not used to being caught off guard.

“I was asking about that time in New Mexico, when I fell off the roof.” Clint turns around from the cockpit, facing her intently. “You were there on the ground, helping me up right away. I thought it was luck that I didn’t break anything, even though I thought I heard something crack. Was that you? Did you heal me?”

Darcy nods, “yes I gave you just enough to fuse the bone back together.”

“Why risk it?” She meets the Russian’s green eyes, sighing Darcy realises she has to be as honest as possible if she has any chance of them ever trusting her.

“Every day SHIELD stayed around was more of a risk to them finding out about me. If a jack-booted-thug, no offense,” Darcy looks to Clint but he waves her off unconcerned about the nickname Eric had given SHIELD agents. “If he had broken his leg he probably would have stayed with us while he healed, or at least a few more days, that was more dangerous than anything else.”

“How come they were able to tell that the fake ID you made for Thor was, well fake, in seconds yet your current ID is still holding up?” That’s not the next question Darcy had been expecting from Clint but it makes her smile. She notes that Clint refers to SHEILD as ‘they’ and not ‘us’ which makes her relax a little more.

“Wait you created a fake ID and it got made?” Tony’s voice and face are aghast as he teases her. “Oh you are definitely demoted.”

“She made it like that on purpose.” The Captain interrupts Tony’s ribbing, “if she made a perfect ID for Thor when SHEILD already knew he wasn’t going to be who they said he was, it would have made them look much closer at her. It was smart, very smart.” He nods at Darcy in recognition.

Darcy is floored, she never thought she would see the day when Captain America paid her a compliment. _It seems like I am destined to only ever have one super solider on speaking terms with me at a time._ She thinks, as she watches Bucky out of the corner of her eye, sitting rigidly at the other end of the quinjet, far away from her and everyone else. Not making eye contact, no shared smiles, no gentle words.

The Avengers throw questions at her for the rest of the trip back to the tower, Darcy explains truthfully, and to the best of her knowledge. “I can only heal injury not sickness, my force field only surrounds me, which is why I had to sit in Captain America’s lap.” Darcy is shocked when the Captain gives her a little grin at that.  _Wow that was almost friendly!_

“When I was a little girl I found this beautiful necklace when I was foraging for mushrooms in the forest near my home for my mother. When I put the necklace on there was a blinding light and then I saw it was fusing into my skin before it disappeared from sight.” Darcy sighs as she prepares to remember the next bit, not that it isn’t burned into her brain. “My mother was killed when the Red Room stole me and the other girls, burning the whole village to the ground. Normally the Red Room would have been much more covert in its acquiring of assets, but my region was involved in a war at the time so no one paid much attention to another destroyed area.” Darcy takes a breath, surprised that the thought of that destruction still brings a tear to her eye. “I discovered my healing ability by accident, when I would heal quickly from scrapes and bruises. Then one day I was helping my best friend Anna, in the Red Room after she had been hurt, I accidentally healed her broken arm. Later on, I discovered the force field on assignment for the Red Room when my target attacked me from behind and I was too late to do anything but throw up my hands in defence. I worked hard to keep it a secret from the trainers, only my best friend Anna knew. But the abilities grow more and more powerful as I get older and it was harder and harder to hide it when the trainers would see the bruises gone the next day.” Darcy pauses in her explanation, the Avengers don’t push for more detail as they can see the grief on her face. Tony slips his arm around Darcy’s waist and she leans into the comfort he’s offering. The team travels the rest of the way in silence.

She stops peeking at Bucky throughout the trip, because every time she looks at him with his shuttered eyes and hard face her heart sinks a little lower. And when they land, he is the first off the quinjet, storming into the tower. As she watches Bucky disappear, the Captain pauses next to Darcy, giving her a feeble smile and pats his hand on her shoulder, which does little in the way to reassure her.

“I got you a present.” Tony declares, taking her chin and angling it toward the elevator which is just opening.

“DARCY!” A petite brunette, whose biology should stop her from being able to be that loud, screams.

“JANIE!” Darcy cries back as she runs into her friends’ open arms. She bursts into tears as the diminutive scientist wraps her up in a big loving hug. “I have so much to tell you.” Darcy sniffles into her best friend’s shoulder.

“I know.” Jane replies as she strokes Darcy’s hair. “It’s all over the news.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the basic breakdown is that Darcy powers are due to a magical/alien artifact that fused into her body when she was a child. She is not a mutant or an inhuman etc. She can heal herself (like wolverine) and can also heal others but there are limits (more about this coming in future chapters). Her force field is pretty basic compared to say Susan Storm but more coming about that in future chapters too.
> 
>  
> 
> As ever, feed my muse by letting me know your thoughts you fantastic people!!! <3


	12. Darcy Lewis: The Guardian Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of talking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was the hardest so far to get through, but I am excited for all the fun stuff ahead! Thank you to you commenters for keeping my muse going so I could get through this part :***

The news stations, tabloids and social media have blown up with a video of Darcy saving Captain America and the Winter Soldier. The white glow of her force field and her healing ability, make her appear to be angelic, so the media have dubbed her as the newest Avenger, the Guardian Angel of New York. Jane stands behind Darcy, with a hand on her shoulder, as Darcy trawls through the coverage, her heart almost bursting out of her throat in anxiety. All her years of caution all for nothing, as the whole world now knows her face and her abilities.

One good thing is that Jane is surprisingly not mad at Darcy for keeping her past in the Red Room and her abilities from her, in fact she is completely understanding of her need to keep it a secret. Especially after Darcy told her that SHIELD demanded blood samples and that she stay with them for testing. Jane spent a few minutes pacing and ranting after that and Darcy had to take her mobile off her so she didn’t call up her assigned SHIELD lackey and give them an earful.

“That ‘replenishing tea’ you always gave me Darce, was that your ability?” Jane asks her after she’s calmed down.

“Green tea is good for the body and mind Janie.” Darcy looks at her friend and sighs, remembering that she decided to be as honest as possible with these people who are standing by her. “The tea wasn’t making you feel better, it was me using my ability when our hands touched as I passed you the tea.”

Jane thinks for a moment, and then hugs Darcy again, she’s been doing that a lot. “Thank you Darce.”

“Of course.” Darcy murmurs back.

“I just have one more question.” Jane swivels Darcy in her chair so their noses are an inch from touching. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t deserve to be pulled into all of my shit.” Darcy replies mulishly.

“But you deserved to be pulled into all of mine?” Jane retorts, referring to the warring Asgardian demi-gods, the alien robot of destruction and the evil Dark Elves who have all tried to harm Darcy at some point due to her association with the astrophysicist.

“None of it was your fault Janie! You couldn’t have done anything to stop what happened from happening anymore than you already did!”

“So what are you saying Darce? That you should have realised as a young child not to put on a pretty necklace? That you could have stopped the Red Room from taking you and destroying your home? That everything that has happened to you is your fault? Don’t be ridiculous.”

Darcy is about to reply with a stubborn ‘I’m not!’ But then realises what Jane is saying has some rationale, so instead she just sticks her tongue out at her best friend immaturely and goes back to scrolling through the news. Jane grabs her in another hug, resting her cheek on top of Darcy’s head. Darcy closes her eyes as she takes a moment to soak in the support.

 

...

 

Downstairs in their apartment Steve is trying to think of the best way to approach Bucky on how he is now acting around Darcy. As per norm he goes in guns blazing, completely blunt. “Are you wishing Darcy didn’t bring you back to life?”

Bucky huffs, “don’t be an idiot, of course not.”

“Why aren’t you talking to her then?” Steve presses.

Bucky blows out a deep breath before responding. “I almost killed everyone Stevie, I couldn’t stop the need to exterminate them. I was prepared to slaughter every single person on that helicarrier for just suggesting that they wanted to experiment on Darcy.”

“I would have been by your side Buck, it was wrong for them to try and do that. All of us would have been by your side.” Steve has his hand on Bucky’s shoulder as it shudders a little at his words. 

Bucky raises his eyes to his best friend’s. “I almost lost control Stevie.”

“Almost being the key word there Buck, you reined it in.”

“Only because you were there.”

“No, I just stopped Fury from losing his other eye. The guy's an asshole but he is one of the good guys… mostly.”

“He’s a good guy? Well that sucks.” Both Bucky and Steve snicker a little.

“Yup.” Steve pats Bucky on the back and moves into the kitchen to heat up some food. Their super soldier bodies need constant nutrition. Although surprisingly he isn’t as hungry as he normally is after a mission. “So hey, why don’t you have a shower and then something to eat before going to talk to Darcy? I bet she’d like to see you.” Steve suggests casually.

“What, you suddenly like her?” Bucky scowls at Steve.

“When people save my life it kinda has that effect. And for the record, I didn’t dislike her, I just didn’t completely trust her. Which I do now.”

Bucky sighs, shaking his head. “I can’t go see her.”

Steve takes their meals out of the microwave and puts them on the bench. “Why not?” 

“I should stay away from her, I’ll just screw up her life even more.”

“What do you mean?” Steve hands Bucky a knife and fork and they both start digging into the massive microwave meals FRIDAY stocks their fridge with for them.

“She saved your life, and you two don’t even get along.” Bucky points at Steve with his fork. “Then she risked her own life to save mine. Even worse perhaps, she risked her freedom to save my life. Her superpower is saving lives, mine is taking them.”

“C’mon Buck.” Steve tries to argue but Bucky interrupts him.

“I’m serious Punk! Before today she had kept her abilities a secret and she was safe. Now the whole world knows her face, Hydra are gonna come after her like they do you and me and it’s all my fault.” Bucky hangs his head over his food, his guilt weighing on him like a ton of bricks.

Steve leans over and whacks Bucky on the head. “It’s my fault more than yours, I was the one who got hit and she had to run in to save. You were only hurt because of me. She only needed to heal you because I got you killed. If you’re looking for someone to blame for this mess it’s me.” 

“You’re an idiot.” Bucky brushes him away.

“No, you are, and every minute you spend not talking to Darcy will make her even more certain that you blame her.” 

“What!” Bucky drops his fork and stands up in shock. “Why would she think that?”

“Because you two are actually a lot alike Buck, and both of you think you deserve contempt and revulsion for things that are outside of your control.” Steve points at Bucky and then at his food.

Bucky pauses and then lets out a big sigh as he picks his fork back up, “I don’t remember you being this smart Punk.”

“I don’t remember you being this dumb Jerk.”

 

…

 

“It’s kinda ironic that the media has named you the Guardian Angel isn’t it?” Tony asks Darcy. They are lying on the comfy couches in the common area watching the news reports of the robot-squid fight. Darcy has had a long shower and feeling good again after eating a hot meal. The chocolate cake she was decorating with Bucky before they got sent to join the mission is still sitting, uneaten, on the counter. Darcy wouldn’t let Tony touch it earlier, holding out, wishing that Bucky would join them and they could serve it together. But as all the other avengers bar the Captain and the Soldier wander in and settle on couches she is losing hope.

“What do you mean?” Jane asks Tony looking up from where she is snuggled against Darcy’s side.

“ _ Annchi _ means Angel.” Natasha replies. Darcy is still having a hard time getting used to calling the Black Widow Natasha, but the assassin insisted.

“The monks at the temple called her Annchi.” Hawkeye explains at Jane’s confused look.

“Ohhh, cool.” Jane says, “you never did say how long you spent with the monks.”

“Quite a few years.” Darcy replies, watching the man she saved from the building on TV, claiming that he was stuck in there because he had a broken leg which the Guardian Angel healed. Darcy shakes her head at the team's looks, “I slapped the dude, he was too petrified to move. Nothing was broken, not even a graze.”

Hawkeye laughs, his arm behind Natasha on their couch, twirling her hair in his fingers. The sight of them cuddling when they first joined them was a shock to the system, but Darcy is now appreciating the fact that the team are being themselves around her.

“So if you spent four years with Jane, spent quite a few years at the temple, and before that you had a lifetime with the Red Room, how old are you?” Tony questions her. Darcy notices Natasha has become very still, so far that’s the only tell she’s been able to find of hers.

“A lady never reveals her age.” She says cheekily to Tony as a slow smile of appreciation spreads across his face. “But I couldn’t tell you, I wasn’t old enough to be paying attention to the date when I was taken by the Red Room, and it’s not like they let you celebrate birthdays or hannukah. I have no idea how long I was with them, just that I was an adult when I got out.”

Just then the stairwell door opens and in walks Bucky with his best friend following, almost looking like Captain Rogers pushed him through the door. The Captain then strides up to Darcy with an earnest expression on his face, if she wasn’t so worried about Bucky hating her she would have been giggling.

“Miss Lewis, I would like to apologise for my behaviour thus far.” He says very formally. She sees Bucky roll his eyes at her, now she has to hold in her giggle. “I had no right to treat you so terribly when I knew Dr Foster and Thor both would vouch for you being trustworthy. I hope that in time you can forgive me and that we may become friends.”

Darcy is biting her lip to stop herself from keeling over with laughter as Tony and Clint cheer, embarrassing the Captain, then Bucky smiles at her and all her worry about him slides away. “There is nothing to forgive Captain Rogers, you were just protecting your family.” She replies in the same formal tone as him.

She watches his shoulders relax as she accepts the hand he holds out to her. “Call me Steve,” he insists.

“Only if you call me Darcy.” She smiles back.

“Sure thing Darcy. Now someone was telling me about a special cake you and Bucky made? I’m feeling like the team could use some refined sugar about now if you are happy to share it?”

“It’s Bucky’s cake.” Darcy says looking at Bucky, feeling a little shy almost. “So he gets to say if he’s going to share it.”

“Of course Doll, the team would never forgive me if I kept your marvelous creation to myself.” Bucky banters with a little wink, making Darcy grin from ear to ear.

“Alright then! Let’s dish it up.” She jumps up and heads to the kitchen taking the plates Bucky hands her from the cupboard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was kind of a storyline chapter, where things happen that have to happen because of PLOT! but aren't really as exciting as the previous chapters. Anyway I hope you all still enjoyed the progression of the story :)


	13. Darcy Lewis vs Miscommunication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy gets settled into life at the Tower

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly do love you guys, so excited for this next part of the story! xox

“I knocked out the first guy that tried to take your blood.” Darcy pauses in her cleaning, turning to face Bucky. They are tidying up from the dishes leftover from the team devouring the chocolate cake, it’s just them in the common area with everyone, including Steve and Jane, heading off to bed, leaving them alone to to the clean up. “I thought at first they were trying to inject you with something to help you wake up but when the doctor couldn’t keep the needle in your arm, as you kept healing around it and pushing it out, he turned to the nurse and said ‘we’ll have to think of some other way to get samples.’ All I could think of was all the experimentation Hydra have done in the past. I saw red, and I threw him into the wall before I knew I had moved. Steve had to restrain me to stop going after the nurses too.”

Darcy stays silent as Bucky talks, sensing that he needs to get some things off his chest.

“Fury ordered us out, wanted to throw me in a cell, but Barton talked him out of it. Natalia… I mean Natasha, refused to leave the room, she told me she would make sure no one else touched you while you slept. I almost burnt SHIELD to the ground for threatening you, but Steve and Natasha managed to stop the Soldier from taking over.” Bucky is fidgeting with the teatowel he is holding, Darcy can feel the waves of distress coming from him, she grabs the teatowel from him to dry her hands before enveloping him in a hug. “When you gave your life to save mine, did you know you would come back?” Bucky’s arms wrap around her back as she rests her head on his chest.

“I have died many times in my life.” Darcy sticks with her policy of honesty. “A whole bunch of deaths were when I was hiding from Red Room assets at the bottom of the Volga River. I stuck my leg under a huge rock and forced myself to drown over and over again. I wasn’t entirely sure if I would keep waking up, but the pain was much less than if I had gone back, so it was an easy decision to make.” Darcy pauses, hoping that the little dip into her past makes Bucky see that her dying is really not at all similar to someone else dying. “However, I have never died from using my abilities before, I usually just get very weakened when I use them. I have never brought anyone back from the dead either, I had no idea that I could, even though I have tried in the past.”

Bucky’s arms tighten round Darcy as she talks, making her feel safe and secure.

“I owe you everything.” Bucky’s voice is muffled by her hair. “You saved both my and Stevie’s lives without a second thought for your own.”

“You owe me nothing.” Darcy replies, drawing her head back to look Bucky in the eye. “You did the exact same thing.” Her gaze is drawn to his lips, so close to hers, almost glistening in the light. Darcy licks her own lips and leans forward, intent on finishing what they started hours earlier, in the exact same place.

“Well it’s getting late.” Bucky says as he pulls away from her and holds her at arm's length with his hands on her shoulders. “Let me walk you to your door.”

A blush creeps across Darcy’s cheeks as he smoothly rejects her advance. _Holy shit! Does he think I’m some sort of freak now and he’s trying to gently let me down?_ “No it’s fine.” She replies frostily as she pulls out of his hold, “I’m a big girl, I can walk myself to my door.”

“No, I want to walk you to your door.” Bucky grabs her arm gently, halting her from moving away. “I’m not sure of the modern way of saying it.” He turns her back around to face him.

Darcy sighs as she sees the confused look on his face. “It’s called breaking up Bucky.” She tugs at his hold on her wrist, scowling when he won’t let go, his hold firm yet still gentle. “Although I’m not sure we had reached a point where we could say we were together enough for this to be you dumping me.” Darcy wasn’t sure what she expected Bucky to do next, but it certainly wasn’t a full body shaking laugh. “You think this is funny?” Darcy’s temper starts to get the better of her and she slams the open palm of her other hand against Bucky’s wrist as she pulls the hand he’s holding sharply away, freeing herself from his grasp and storming off.

“No, no Darcy. We’ve had a miscommunication.” Bucky manages to speak between chuckles. “Damn I never used to be this bad with dames.” Bucky chases after her and grabs her, twisting her to face him again. “Let me court you. I want you to be my girl.”

“Oh.” Darcy’s heart flutters at his words, as she relaxes in his arms.

“I’m sorry if I offended you, but you’re so important to me, I want to take it slow, treat you right.”

Darcy wants to come up with a pithy reply but her normal confidence with men has disappeared and in it’s place is this fluttering feeling in her stomach. “When you… when you stopped me from kissing you I thought...”

“I want you to know I’m not some knucklehead who’s just making a pass at a stacked doll.” Bucky’s accent has deepened slightly as he interrupts her, a serious look replacing his earlier gaiety.

Darcy grins as she reaches up to rub the line that has appeared on his brow, “I’m going to have to become familiar with 1940’s slang aren’t I?”

Bucky returns her grin, grabbing her hand and kissing it, “seems only fair since I have to learn this 21st century language you all call English.” Their hands swaying in between them, they walk to the stairs, both smiling gently at the other.

 

…

 

Darcy falls into a routine over the next few days. In the morning she makes breakfast in her apartment, and takes it to the scientists’ three in their labs. Bruce is very apologetic about his leaving but relaxes once she assures him that she understood his reasoning. Darcy finds him very sweet and develops a bit of a crush on the cute scientist with his befuddled mannerisms. She then spends the rest of the morning helping Jane, or cleaning up after the disaster that is Tony before heading to the common area to make lunch, which she then takes back to the labs to manipulate the brain-trust into eating. She knows it isn’t the best idea to let them go without breaks but it’s the only way she’s able to make them all stop at 8pm each night to come to the common space for a team dinner. And yes that is a whole team dinner. The first night she cooked a pineapple and cherry glazed ham, planning to use the leftovers the next day, in omelettes for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, but Natasha, Clint and the super soldiers showed up so there were no leftovers. Now she makes four times as much food to make sure she can feed everybody dinner and there is only a little bit left in the fridge for someone’s midnight snack. They all take turns doing the dishes so Darcy figures it’s a win-win situation for her.

Darcy has trained FRIDAY to watch over the scientists, and the AI transcribes all their notes so she has her afternoons free from the labs. She’s taken to going down to the training level and doing some seasoning, whether it be climbing the rock wall, yoga, practicing with the swords, or going through some combat techniques to sharpen her martial arts.

When Bucky isn’t training with Steve, he is hanging out with Darcy. Helping her cook and tidy and feed the scientists. After a week of asking he finally convinces Darcy to spar with him, he’s impressed with her skill, and enjoys the different styles she brings to the ring. She’s quicker than she looks and he finds it hard to land a solid blow, although he would be lying if he said he was trying very hard. His favorite session would have to be when he managed to catch her one time and they both went to the ground, she was stuck beneath him for about 1.2 seconds before she managed to flip them over and she was on top. He had to take a long cold shower after that.

Darcy moves to regularly sparing with the others, enjoying the comradery and the tune-up from not training properly for years. She realises on her first spar with Natasha that the Widow wasn’t even trying when they first fought in the kitchen. It was a ploy to see exactly how skilled Darcy was and how far she was willing to go. She has to give it to the assassin, Natasha knows her stuff. Natasha routinely gets her on the ground until a few days later when Darcy stops holding back and gives it her all. After a two hour contest it’s deemed a draw by an impressed Steve.

“Next time we should use weapons.” Natasha suggests as they both stretch on the mats, side by side for their warm down.

Darcy darts a concerned glance at her, “you do know I heal pretty much instantly right, and you don’t?”

“That’s what makes it so fun.” The redhead laughs, “I don’t have to pull my punches for fear of harming you.”

“I still feel pain you sadist.” Darcy laughs back as Natasha holds out her hand pulling Darcy to her feet.

“Well then I guess you have a good incentive to make sure I’m unsuccessful.” The assassin winks at her before disappearing to the showers.

“She’s crazy.” She declares to a smiling Bucky.

“Don’t say that too loud Doll, she might hear you.”

 

…

 

Life in the tower is almost at a blissful level for Darcy, _if only Bucky would give up on his stoic 1940’s gentleman courting and actually kiss me!_ However life outside the tower was still chaotic and perilous. Two weeks after the world discovered Darcy’s abilities and the news cycle is still covering it, the latest is a series of interviews with her ex Ian. So when an Avengers Assemble alarm rings, Bucky finds Darcy in her kitchen, wallowing in a tub of Ben  & Jerry’s Karamel Sutra.

“Darcy, Steve’s asked me to go on this mission with them. It’s at an old Hydra base I’ve been stationed before so I know the layout pretty well. Wanted to make sure I said goodbye to my best girl.” He smiles cheekily at her is a way that normally makes her heart flutter.

But Darcy has a sick feeling in her stomach, _it’s probably because you ate too much ice cream you idiot._ “Be careful OK?” She says reaching for his hand and working up a smile for him as he raises her hand to his lips and kisses it.

“Always Doll.”

 

A week later Darcy wishes she had listened to her gut and stopped him from going on that mission, when the quinjet gets back and a somber Steve steps up to her and says in a voice that is so full of anguish it burns into her soul.

“They captured him and we’ve lost their trail.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always I love to hear your thoughts :***


	14. Darcy Lewis & Captain America vs HYDRA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy gears up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so sorry that I have taken so long to update! Please know that I absolutely will finish this! I have just had a really busy time with work leading up till Christmas. 
> 
> ENJOY!
> 
> P.S. I have written the Russian words as how they sound in English for those of us who have no idea how to read Cyrillic :)

Darcy crumbles bonelessly to the floor as Steve’s words permeate her mind. She doesn’t notice that he catches her before she hits the ground, and that he is now carrying her to the medical floor and placing her on a bed. A ringing invades her eardrums as she stares blindly at Steve. The shock sets in and Darcy begins to shake. The Avengers, covered in cuts and bruises, are all ignoring the medical team trying to check them over as Jane hurries in, climbing into the hospital bed with Darcy, hugging her tightly. Darcy closes her eyes desperate for the abyss of unconsciousness but knows that she has to woman-up and face the music. The ringing is still bothering her, making spots appear as she opens her eyes and looks around the room. It takes a while for her to realise people are talking, but as she focuses on the voices, the ringing slowly dulls and the spots disappear.

“Where?” She manages to choke out and everyone goes silent, focusing on her.

“We last saw him east of Kiev, near the Russia-Belarus border.” Steve steps forward as the rest of the team let him speak for them. “We followed the trail up to a village west of Tallinn and then down to Bucharest and when they headed across to Baku we lost the trail.”

“When?”

“About 4 and a half days ago.” Steve sighs and rubs his hand over his gaunt face. “Could be longer, he was on lookout duty so there was a couple hours of radio silence where they could have taken him.”

“How did they get him?” Darcy pushes herself up into sitting position, Jane moves off the bed and grabs a glass of water from the side table, handing it to Darcy.

“We don’t know, we assume a dart of some kind, with a strong sleeping agent, maybe an icer.”

Darcy huffs out a deep breath, scared to know the answer to her next question but knowing she has to ask it. _Focus Darcy focus, Bucky needs you to be strong._ “Do you think they made him compliant and got him to leave with them willingly?”

“No chance.” Steve answers immediately and with confidence that makes the dull ringing disappear completely from Darcy’s head. “There were drag marks from where his sniper nest was, there was no blood or sign of a struggle. And there would have been fighting if someone had started to say those words to him.”

Darcy nods, “but there’s is nothing to say that they didn’t have him restrained and then read the words the moment he woke up?” She asks somewhat rhetorically, watching the anguish cross the Captain’s face again.

“Tony is going to set up an intel base here with FRIDAY, the rest of the team is going to be on standby watching over the tower and out of state facility. Unless we get some concrete information we have to assume Hydra are going to use Bucky’s knowledge of the Avenger’s facilities to attack us at home.” Steve’s face and voice are exhausted yet earnest as he places his hand on her ankle somewhat comfortingly. “I’m going back out to look for him Darcy, I just need to collect supplies for a longer time away from the tower and refuel and rest.”

“No need to wait.” Darcy says as she holds out her hand to Steve, palm facing up.

He reaches his hand out, before pulling back and hesitating with his hand an inch from hers. “Are you sure?”

“Never been surer of anything in my life.”

“Ok then.” Steve says as he clasps his hand around hers. Everyone is still and silent as the tiniest glow emanates from between his hand and Darcy’s for a millisecond before disappearing. Steve’s face goes from exhausted and drained, to revived and rejuvenated in that split second. His posture moving from slumped and tired to straight and energised.

“Wow.” He breathes out, extending his arms as he stretches a little. “That felt amazing, I feel amazing, like when the serum first changed me, but even more so.”

“Right.” Darcy swings herself off the little bed with purpose. “Let’s go.”

“Hold up!” Jane grabs Darcy’s arm, “you can’t be thinking of going with him Darce! It’s too dangerous!”

Tony snorts, Natasha raises an eyebrow and Clint gives a half smile, as Darcy turns and rolls her eyes at her best friend.

“Janey, I’m not exactly breakable.”

“Yeah I know.” Jane sighs and pulls Darcy into a hug. “I’m just having a hard time thinking of my best friend being a badass. You keep her safe you understand?” Jane pokes Steve in the chest as he nods vehemently. They’ve all seen Jane in one of her tantrums and the destruction she can cause so the Captain has a healthy amount of respect and fear for the small scientist.

“Collect everything you need Darcy, and we’ll head back out as soon as the Quinjet is refueled and loaded with supplies.” Steve tells her and she nods, immediately compiling a list of things she needs in her mind.

“I have some tech that I’ve designed in mind for you.” Tony says waving at Darcy to follow him and she falls into step with him as they walk to the elevator. “Very similar to Romanoff’s gear but more tuned for your talents.” As the doors to his lab slide open, Tony points to a locker in the corner of the workshop. Although Darcy is sick to the bone thinking about what Hydra could be doing to Bucky, she puts those thoughts into a box to deal with later, once Bucky is safe. She focuses on preparing herself to best help Bucky and lets herself be a little curious and a little bit delighted that Tony thought to create tac gear for her.

“Oh wow.” Darcy exclaims as she opens the lockers and sees the accessories inside. Her pair of glocks are hanging in what looks like upgraded thigh holsters with room for more ammo. There is also an attachment for widow bites and icers. The Katana like sword is hanging next to a suit similar to the Widow’s, except the gloves have mesh on the inside along the palms and fingers.

“I wasn’t sure if you needed skin to skin contact for your power to work so I put in that mesh.” Tony explains as she feels along it. “The suit is bullet proof, water proof and will protect you against all elements, including electricity, which is a new feature. The suit has pockets all over for the bites, ammo packs and other gear. Your guns will hold normal ammo packs but also icers and they have been coated in my new polymer which will protect them from the elements, again, including electricity.”

“Wow.” Darcy says again, somewhat stunned for a moment, but she has a mission, to save Bucky, so she doesn’t waste time as she quickly and competently gears up. Tony has politely (for a change), turned his back and is working on the arm of one of his Iron Man suits.

“I know you’re immortal and a trained ninja or whatever.” Tony mumbles to Darcy over his shoulder, as she attaches the blade to her back and starts towards the door. “But be careful OK? Kinda got used to having you around.”

“I’ll come back in one piece.” Darcy promises, as she surprises Tony, and herself, by grabbing him in a tight hug, before turning and running to the stairs to the Quinjet. She meets Steve on the helipad and they walk up the gangplank together.

Steve pauses at the top, turning to Darcy. “Are you sure you want to do this Darcy? I mean…” he runs a hand through his hair, not yet covered by his suit’s cowl, “I know that you can handle yourself and you will be a huge advantage to us finding Bucky. But he will kill me when he finds out I let his girl come fight Hydra with me.”

“Don’t worry Steve,” Darcy smile is full of intent. “You’re not letting me come along, I’ve decided that you can come with me. Furthermore, I’d like to see you try and stop me. Somehow I think that won’t go the way you’re used too.”

Steve raises his hands in surrender with a half laugh, “Yes ma’am.”

And with that he settles into the cockpit with Darcy in the co-pilot’s seat and they take off. Both trying not to fixate on what Bucky could be going through right now at the hands of Hydra.

 

…

 

Bucky wakes with a raging headache, immediately on edge as he can’t move his arms, legs or head.

“Zhelaniye.” A harsh voice rings out, fear permeates his whole being as he recognises that word and begins to struggle with all his strength. “Rzhavyy.” The voice continues.

“NO!” Bucky manages to cry out as he spies the man standing to the left of him, reading from a book. “Stop!”

“Semnadtsat. Rassvet. Pech. Devyat. Dobroserdechnyy. Vozvrashcheniye na rodinu.” The man continues reading, seemingly obvious to Bucky’s plea for help.

“Odin.” The man walks towards Bucky, looking directly at him. “Gruzovoy vagon.”

Bucky slumps for a moment, no longer fighting against his restraints, before sitting rigid and tall.

“I have a mission for you Soldier.”

“Ready to comply.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun DUNNNN
> 
> I love you all, your comments feed me xox


	15. Darcy Lewis Ain't got No Time for Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Steve bond and they kick some Hydra butt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Promised I would be updating more regularly again ;P

Darcy kicks another thug onto his ass and he doesn’t get back up, the hit to his jaw knocking him out. She plugs in the Stark-drive Tony gave them into the computer and she quickly infiltrates the mainframe, pulling out every bit of information she can. This is the third Hydra safehouse they have targeted, and the third time they have come up empty handed of Bucky. Except for a skeleton crew at each place, they were nearly devoid of information. The few Hydra agents they had managed to question were all bottom level, who didn’t even know who was giving their superior their orders. 

“Time to move.” Steve declares, after checking that the rope he had tied the unconscious Hydra goons in was secure. Darcy nods in agreement grabbing the USB and they run out up the stairs in unison, jumping from rooftop to rooftop until they get to their Quinjet, hidden by it’s clocking technology in a nearby grove of trees. 

It had only been 30 hours since they left the Avengers tower, but they were already an effective and efficient team. Steve was the battering ram and Darcy was the trojan horse, between them they had taken out every obstacle easily and also avoided running into SHIELD who seemed to be hot on their heels cleaning up behind them. With Darcy’s ability charging up Steve regularly, they were able to work non-stop without sleep. Darcy had also found that as she used her abilities more often the stronger they were getting and she was feeling less and less depleted after energising Steve.  _ I guess it’s like any muscle, the more you work it out the stronger it gets.  _ But although Darcy’s power was fantastic at removing any tiredness or aches and pains, it still was only healing them physically and couldn’t heal them emotionally.

“We’ll find him Steve.” Darcy says simply, her hand covering his as they fly out of the forest and into the sky, heading for Beirut as per the information they found at the Hydra safehouse. 

“I know.” Steve sighs, as he turns on the autopilot, his head falling back onto the seat, not in exhaustion but in despair. His hand turns over to hold hers, taking comfort in her touch. “But in what shape?”

“Worse case scenario we hit him on the head really, really hard.” Darcy tries to lighten the mood but her heart isn’t really in it and Steve can tell. He gives her hand a light squeeze to let her know he appreciates her trying.

“Yeah and his head is really hard, so if you get a chance, make sure you put all your strength into it.” Steve gives a half-hearted chuckle.

They sit in silence for a few minutes, just settling their minds. “You know Beirut’s a trap right?” Darcy says softly turning to look at Steve, studying his face out of the cowl.

“Of course,” Steve nods, “all their intel was too obvious.” He’s closed his eyes, but he is fully alert with his strategic mind going a mile a minute, working through every plan he can think of. “The question is, do they know that we know it’s a trap?” He asks rhetorically.

“If it’s a trap, that’s where Bucky is… or the Winter Soldier more likely.” Darcy replies.

Steve squeezes her hand again, “well that’s where we want to be then.”

“Damn straight.” Darcy says and she gets up from the copilots seat and goes to check through her gear.

The rest of the trip they spend cleaning their gear and getting everything reloaded, including loading their bodies up on protein bars and hydralyte drinks. As they land they talk to Clint about what they’ve found so far and he reports back on the intel FRIDAY has collected, agreeing that Beirut is the place to be and confirming that it’s a trap.

“You should wait for us, for back up, we can be there in a few hours.” Clint urges them.

“We’re not waiting.” Darcy’s voice is decisive.

“I agree with Darcy.” Steve’s voice leaves no room for argument. “Anyhow, if it’s a trap then we might need you guys to come get us out.”

“Give us a few hours,” Darcy bargains, “if you haven’t heard from us in 5 hours then send the Tinman over to rescue us.”

“I heard that!” Tony’s head pops into the screen. “And I don’t know whether to insult you back or bask in the glory that is being given the role of the Guardian Angel and Captain America’s saviour.”

“How about you don’t do either?” Steve groans as Clint’s laughter comes through their speakers.

“Text me when you decide,” Darcy smirks at the screen, “might take a while for that tiny brain of yours to figure it out.”

“Hey!” Tony starts to complain but Natasha interrupts him, pulling the camera to face her.

“You have 3 hours to report back that you’ve diffused the situation or we’re heading over.” She says in a scary no nonsense tone. Still, Darcy is surprised when Steve just nods in assent.

“Fair enough.” He replies, “You’ll be able to monitor comms from the Tower so you’ll have live intell on what’s going on. You’ll know if we run into trouble.”

“Remember, don’t be stupid. Don’t act on emotion.” Natasha directs at Steve, but gives a pointed look to Darcy.

“You got it boss lady.” Darcy signs off from the video chat. She imagines the Black Widow was trying to telepathically tell her that Steve acts like a complete idiot when it comes to his best friend and to watch out for him.  _ Tell me something I don’t know. _

“We’ve got the coordinates, we’ve got our plan, time to find Bucky and put an end to this.” Steve says in his Captain America voice, looking hell bent on causing some devastation as he pulls on his cowl and grabs his shield.

“A-Fucking-Men.” Darcy says as she checks her guns for the fourth time and straps on the Katana.

“LANGUAGE!” Tony’s voice calls over the comms as they jump out of the Quinjet and dive into the ocean.

 

…

 

“General, the Guardian Angel and Captain America have landed near Bir Hasan and are on their way here. Estimated arrival in 35 minutes.” A Hydra communications officer declares, fear making his voice tremble slightly.

“Yobannoe dno!” A small skinny man exclaims in Russian, staring at the monitors with his eyes bugging. “They are much earlier than expected, do they not need sleep?”

“General,” a portly middle aged woman in a white lab coat says in an American accent as she steps up to the communications centre, “we have hypothesised that the Guardian Angel may not need sleep due to her healing abilities, and that she is using her abilities to keep the Captain in top physical form. This would explain their acceleration of our timeline.”

“This will utterly complicate our plan.” The General starts pacing before turning to a handful of soldiers standing at attention at the back of the room. “Lieutenant!”

“Yes General.” A huge, hard looking man with a scar through his cheek steps forward.

“You and your men will hold this position till our back up arrives. You are to attack with extreme prejudice with the understanding that these 2 can withstand anything up to a bullet to the head.”

“Yes General!” The Lieutenant booms in response as he stalks back to his men and they all cock their guns and march off in several directions to defend the base.

“How long till the asset arrives?” The General directs at the communications officer.

“Just over an hour.”

“Derr`mo!” The General curses as he begins to pace the floor.

“My team and I shall stay in the laboratory awaiting our specimens.” The American scientist backs away and then hurries off to the safety of her lab just as the intruder alarm starts blaring.

“They’re early?” The General questions the communications officer who has gone sheet white as the monitors are now showing only static.

“Impossible, our radars only just detected their Quinjet landing.”

“Incompetent fool.” The General grabs his pistol and shoots the officer in the head. The General then grabs a walkie talkie from the bench. “This will be a battle that will change the tide of our war and win the world for Hydra! ” The General states into it. “We will be rewarded beyond measure for the capture of the Captain and his Guardian. HAIL HYDRA!”

“HAIL HYDRA!” The mantra echoes through the base.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots more action coming up next chapter :)


	16. Darcy Lewis & the Killer Touch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More action!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for canon-typical violence and references to medical experimentation

The barrage of bullets that greets them at the entrance of the Hydra hideout doesn’t surprise either Steve or Darcy, as they purposefully set off the alarm system hoping to draw the Hydra agents out. Using Cap’s shield and Darcy’s forcefield they easily avoid being hit and Steve tosses an icer grenade into the fray. The alarm seems to blare even louder now the sound of gunshots is gone. As they carefully pick their way through the frozen bodies, Darcy quickly restrains them and pulls their cyanide caps out of their teeth while Steve keeps alert for the next attack. Once that’s done they then slip through the hallway to the next blockade and repeat the process.

“It shouldn’t be this easy.” Darcy mutters under her breath, knowing that Steve’s supersoldier hearing will catch it.

“It won’t be once Bucky appears.” Steve responds as they quickly clear a series of rooms that look like a cross between a hospital ward and a medical lab.

“Fuck.” Is all Darcy can say as they meticulously step through the creepy space. “Seriously this is my worst nightmare. Getting experimented on for the rest of my life.”

“Keep focused Darce. Don’t let this distract you.” Steve orders as they come up to a whiteboard with pictures of Darcy on it and a series of diagrams underneath, documenting her abilities and other possibilities. Including a plan to remove her organs and implant them in others to see if they get her abilities. “Remember they couldn’t even get a needle through your skin when you were unconscious, I doubt they’ll be able to get a scalpel into you.”

“Oh shit.” Darcy exhales a huge breath and her vision waivers as she sees the board.

Just then there is a huge crash and a dozen soldiers fly into the room. Darcy quickly takes out 3 with shots of icer, and a fourth with a solid kick to the solar plexus and then a fifth with an elbow to his jaw when he tries to get her in a headlock from behind. Steve takes out the rest with a combination of his shield and his fists but then a huge soldier with a scar through his face rams into Steve tackling him through a window and they disappear from her sight.

“You think you can beat us Guardian Angel?” Darcy stops in her chase to the window to see if Steve is alright and turns to face a small man in a general’s military uniform, automatically protecting herself with her forcefield. “Cut off one head and two more take its place.”

“Yeah yeah we’ve all heard that moronic claim before.” Darcy says stepping towards the man.

“STOP!” The General orders, but Darcy ignores him, till his hand goes to a small switch on the wall. “If you do not stop I will flip this switch and then you will be very sorry.”

“What, like a tank of piranhas will appear?” Darcy taunts, but she stops in her tracks a couple of arms lengths away from the General, more men appear behind him, but they look like scientists not soldiers and they keep their distance.

“You think you Avengers are so smart, but Hydra is smarter, we will prevail. Your forcefield is not impermeable, we know with enough pressure it will fail. The Winter Soldier is returned to us and soon we will have another military asset to do our bidding. And of course you will make a fine addition to our cause.”

Darcy lets the man rant,  _ sometimes it’s good to let your opposition distract themselves, _ as she listens for signs of Steve. It sounds like someone is climbing up the side of the building so Darcy circles a little bit so she can see the window.

“I said stop MOVING!” The Hydra General shrieks, “If you take one more step I will flip this switch and electrocute you, you little ‘suka! Yes Hydra knows that this is your weakness! Hydra pays attention to its enemies! The whole floor where you are standing is wired for electric shock.”

Darcy keeps her smirk off her face,  _ this guy is such an idiot. He obviously has seen the robot battle footage and assumed because Steve and Bucky were trying to keep me away from the electrocuted water, that I am especially susceptible.  _ Darcy makes a mental note to thank Tony for the non-conducting gear once this is over.

“As I was saying,” The General continues with faux calm, “you will make a great addition to Hydra’s army. Our scientists are looking forward to meeting you, they have gotten somewhat bored of the Soldier of late so are excited about something new to study.”

Darcy sees red, and before she knows it she’s across the room and holding the man by his neck. “Bucky. Is. Not. A. Science. Experiment!” She cries, rage making her whole body tremble.

“Darcy no!” She barely hears Steve call out. He’s climbed back in the window and is starting towards her with his arms outstretched, when Darcy feels a pulse of power explode from her body and Steve stumbles back landing on one knee, a hand over his chest as he feels his heart stutter. The Hydra scientists all fall to the floor, completely knocked out.

“What the…” Darcy mumbles as she lets go of the General, her heart pounding and the feeling of power surging through her body, a glowing outline appears around her for a moment before disappearing. Darcy has never felt more powerful as some unknown feeling vibrates through her being. The General slides to the ground and Darcy gasps as she sees his eyes open, and completely black. Steve walks over and places his fingers on the General’s pulse point, and shakes his head at Darcy, before checking out the scientists. 

“They're alive.” He says as he quickly restrains them.

“Oh my god.” Darcy is staring at her hands in disbelief and fear, “oh my god. DON’T TOUCH ME!” She screams as Steve goes to place his hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know what happened, I could hurt you!”

Steve puts his hands up in a placating gesture. “Darcy, it’ll be alright.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Darcy exclaims, “I just took a man’s life with my touch and you think it’s going to be alright?”

“Yes Darce, it will be.” Steve walks right up to her, but she stumbles back, afraid to be too close to him. So he keeps walking till Darcy’s back is against the wall and then he stops an inch from her. “You’re not going to hurt me Darce.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.” Steve says gently as he places his hands on her shoulders, then after Darcy has taken a shaky breath, he slides his hands down to hers and clasps them gently in his. “See, no problem.”

Tears appear in the edge of Darcy’s eyes as, although she puts all her strength into resisting him, Steve easily and gently brings one of her hands up to cup his cheek. “How could you trust me, when I don’t even trust myself?”

Steve is distracted from all thoughts of Hydra as he tries to calm Darcy. Having seen the emotional distress Wanda went through due to her abilities, he doesn’t ever want Darcy to have to experience that. “Because you are a good and kind person who is as beautiful inside as she is out.” He is focused on staring intently into her eyes, desperate to have her believe him. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t hear the new arrivals until it’s too late.

“Oh please don’t let us interrupt you two lovebirds.” A harsh voice full of derision jeers at them.

Steve swings around, swiftly covering them both with the shield, but falters for a moment when he sees his best friend, dressed in his Winter Soldier armor, standing next to the man who had spoken, who looks exactly like a villain in a bad movie would with his twirling mustache and monobrow.

“Bucky?” He and Darcy murmur softly at the same time, to the delight of the man who is clearly incharge as he claps his hands together and the alarm stops sounding.

“No, unfortunately for you two lovers, Bucky is no longer with us. This is the Asset.” The Asset looks at them both coolly, assessingly, but almost like they aren’t even there. “Asset, take these two into custody.” The room fills with Hydra soldiers, all pointing their guns at Steve and Darcy.

The Asset cocks his gun and points it at them. “Kneel.” He orders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh ohhhhhh


	17. Darcy Lewis to the Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More action!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohmigod this fic just passed 30,000 words!!!
> 
> Have I told you recently how much I adore you readers and your fantastic comments? Even a little <3 or !!! just makes my day xox

Before Steve and Darcy can do anything more than blink, Bucky turns his gun towards the Hydra soldiers closest to them and fires, he then uses his metal arm to punch Monobrow in the face, knocking him to the floor, before turning and disarming the soldiers behind him. It takes no longer than a millisecond for Steve and Darcy to get over their shock and join in the fight. Steve rams his shield into the soldiers still standing near them as Darcy flips one who is pointing his gun at Steve over her shoulder and into the wall. At the same time she kicks another soldier, who was aiming at Bucky, in the knee breaking his leg and disarming him. They’ve taken out most of the Hydra soldiers in 30 seconds but more begin to pour into the room. Upon seeing the Winter Soldier, who they thought was on their side, smashing Hydra bodies into the floor, the new Hydra soldiers start to fire into the room with abandon, not caring if they hit their own men or not, just desperate to take out the super soldiers. 

Bucky is able to use Hydra agents as shields against the bullets as Darcy jumps in front of Steve with her force field protecting them. “We need to get to the switch!” Steve exclaims to Darcy, looking like he is considering barreling through the room like a bull to get there.

She nods in agreement, “throw me!” Although they are on the other side of the room Steve easily picks her up and tosses her across, using his shield to make sure they don’t get shot in the process as Darcy has to turn off her forcefield so Steve could touch her. 

A couple of Hydra agents make a soft landing for Darcy and she strikes an open palm to the throat of a soldier standing in front of the switch completely incapacitating him. She barely pays attention to the feeling of being bitten as a few bullets make their way into her thigh and side as the ammo piercing rounds Hydra are using penetrate her suit. Darcy turns as she gets to the switch and yells to Bucky, “THE FLOOR IS LAVA!” Remembering a game of tag they once played in the Tower communal living space he jumps to a window frame and balances on the edge as Darcy flicks the switch. The room makes a slight buzzing sound and all the Hydra soldiers collapse, except for one who figured out what Darcy meant and jumped onto a table. Bucky quickly shoots him and he tumbles to the floor. Silence follows as Darcy flicks the switch off and Steve jumps down from his perch on a hospital gurney, he then immediately strides over to Bucky and they embrace in a brief but powerful hug. 

“Glad you could make it, Punk.”

“Sorry we’re a little late, Jerk.”

Darcy is semi-frozen on the other side of the room, breathing heavily, not from exertion but shock at finally finding Bucky. She manages to shake herself out of it and begins to restrain the unconscious soldiers at her feet. She senses rather than sees Bucky cross the room to her and before she can stop him he picks her up in a huge bearhug, her feet dangling off the floor as he buries his face in her neck.

“Thank you.” He says simply and Darcy wraps her arms around him. They stay like that for a moment, as behind them Steve restrains the remaining comatose Hydra agents.

“FRIDAY, let them know we have him and we’re on our way home.” Steve says into his comm unit.

“Affirmative Captain,” The AI replies, “SHIELD are on their way, ETA six minutes.”

“Thanks FRIDAY. Time to go.” He directs at the other two who disintagle and Bucky puts Darcy’s feet back on the ground. They all run up out of the base together and the Quinjet, being piloted virtually by FRIDAY, picks them up off the roof. Steve jumps in the pilot seat and navigates them up and over the sea, headed for New York.

“How’d you do it Buck?” Steve asks once they are on their course and autopilot is turned on. “How’d you beat the programming?”

“I didn’t.” Bucky says simply as he peels off his armor. “Darcy did.”

“I did?” Darcy asks, a little bit confused.

“When you saved me, you must have healed the pathways in my brain that the Soviets had created. So the trigger words didn’t work.” 

Steve gets up from the pilot seat and claps Bucky on the back, words can’t express the joy he is feeling at the moment, knowing his best friend is finally out from under the influence of those words. He knows they have haunted Bucky for a very long time, causing many sleepless nights and fearful nightmares. They share a smile that they both turn to Darcy, who is a little bit bemused at the situation.

“So when they had finished saying the words I just acted like I thought the Asset would behave and they bought it.” Bucky continues as he sits down and pulls of his gloves. “I was able to learn everything about their plan to capture you two and turn you both into assets. So then I was able to counter-plan to attack at the right moment.” 

“I can never repay you Darcy.” Steve says, his serious voice coming on.

“Oh shut up Stevie.” Darcy turns around, a blush creeping across her cheeks as she starts to pull her weaponry off and put it away, “there is no debt amongst friends.”

Bucky laughs at their exchange, feeling happy like he hasn’t in a long time. “It’s nice to see you two getting along so well.” He watches as Darcy and Steve hold hands for a moment, like its an automatic movement, and sees the millisecond of glow as Darcy heals him. “Maybe even too well?” He teases.

Steve blushes a deep red. “It wasn’t like that Bucky, you got the wrong end of the stick.” Steve gulps nervously, worried that his best friend thinks that he is trying to steal his girl, especially because the position they were found in when Bucky arrived could be seen as overly close.

“I know Punk, I’m just teasing.”

“Here.” Darcy says holding out her hand, and without hesitation Bucky takes it and Darcy gives him a burst, energising him and healing any cuts and bruises not already healed by his accelerated restorative ability.

“You seem to be better at this than before.” Bucky states curiously as he stretches out feeling pleasantly refreshed.

“I have been using it a lot this week. More so than I’ve probably used it in the past few years even.” Darcy pulls her blade off her back, both pleased and disappointed that she didn’t get to employ it against Hydra.

“Like any muscle, it gets stronger with practice and training.” Steve explains, “the growth in Darce’s energy and power is amazing.”

“I guess training is gonna get more fun then huh?” Bucky teases moving to bop Darcy on the nose.

“She will make an amazing addition to the Avengers, both of you will… if you want to.” Steve smiles gently before clapping Bucky on the shoulder again and moving back to the pilot's seat, giving them what little privacy a supersoldier with super hearing can.

“So what’s for dinner tonight Doll? I’ve been dreaming of your cooking for days.” Bucky smiles as he leans nonchalantly against the opposite side of the Quinjet to Darcy. 

“Something full of fat and salt and definitely a dessert full of sugar.” Darcy gives a half smile as she finishes putting away her gear. “But first, a shower, because man oh man do I stink.”

“You smell wonderful.” Bucky protests as he tries to block thoughts of him helping her in the shower from his mind.

Darcy snorts, “yeah, yeah.”

Bucky can tell something is up, that she isn’t her usual gregarious self. He shifts awkwardly as he worries about what it could be. “I know seeing me as the Winter Soldier can be a bit disconcerting, but I swear I never was under the influence of Hydra.”

“I’m not worried about the Winter Soldier, Bucky. I know I could take him.” Darcy tries to cover up her worry with jokes but can see that he isn’t fooled. “I discovered a new power just before you arrived, and it’s not so great.”

“Tell me Doll.” Bucky says softly as he moves to sit next to her, sliding his arm around her shoulders.

Darcy leans into him, letting his body warmth comfort her. “Turns out I have the ability to not only give life but take it too. I don’t know how, I was so angry at that General for talking about you like he did, I just pulled the life right out of him.” 

“We all have the ability to take life Darce.” Bucky holds up his hands in front of them, turning over the flesh and then the metal one. “The number of lives these hands have taken that I don’t even remember…” He shakes his head and pulls her back to his side. “We all have the ability, but it’s whether we use that ability or not that makes us who we are.”

“But what if I can’t control it? What if I hurt someone innocent?”

“You will learn to control it, and you won’t.” Bucky’s voice is absolute and Darcy doesn’t bother to argue, knowing how stubborn he can be sometimes. 

_ I can’t risk it, I can’t risk them or him. I have to leave. _ Curled up against Bucky for the rest of the journey back to New York, Darcy plans her departure from the Tower quietly in her head. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh the angst in this fic would kill me if I was a reader hahahah


	18. Darcy Lewis & the Decoy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy drinks a coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to the amazing Kat_Henshaw_ZombieCyborgAssassin for signing up to be my beta reader!

 

The next morning Darcy relaxes in her bed, enjoying the plushness around her and remembering the pleasure in Bucky’s face as the whole team had welcomed them back to the Tower the night before. The amount of vodka Nat plied them with last night, encouraged by Tony and Clint, she should have a horrible hangover but her healing powers have saved her from that fate. Luckily a not-so-sober-but-not-yet-drunk Darcy is still a great cook and she made a huge family meal consisting of lasagna, carbonara, garlic bread, cheesy herb pizza and creme brulee for dessert. There was enough energy in that meal to last someone a week on the run, although she didn’t let on that was her purpose for downing so many carbs.

When the clock shows 6am Darcy gets out of bed and prepares for her last day in the Tower. To ensure that no suspicion is aroused by any of the Avengers she needs to make sure that she does everything like she normally would. That includes not getting up too early and not packing any bags. Not that she’s afraid that the Avengers see her as a prisoner, someone that has to stay in the Tower under their watch. Darcy is more concerned that they will try to physically stop her from leaving, or forcefully come with her, or follow her, putting themselves in danger.  _ Until I know more about this new power, until I know for certain that I can control it, I can’t risk harming any of earth’s mightiest heroes.  _

She turns on the shower, to stop any possible noise transmitting out to FRIDAY, then rigorously examines a few bits of tech and a couple of her weapons to make sure there are no transmission devices hidden on them. After she showers Darcy carefully hides these items around her person, doing this in the bathroom ensures that FRIDAY won’t see and report it as an anomaly. Although it is common for some of the Avengers to have gear on them at all times, Nat has at least a dozen knives at any point of the day on her person. Darcy had made the active choice when she first came in to not carry, to help with making the Tower residents feel less on edge around her.

Darcy is making breakfast for the scientists in her kitchen when there’s a knock on her door and it swings open with Bucky appearing carrying a large caramel latte for her.

“Thought you might be needing this since you’ve been deprived of the finer things in life for a few days.” Bucky announces with a flourish as he hands it off to Darcy.

“Thank you Bucky, mmmmm.” She almost moans as the smell glides over her. Taking a big gulp she burns her tongue but it’s healed before she even takes her next sip. “This is amazing.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” Bucky smirks at her, watching as her tongue darts out to lick up the froth on her upper lip. His eyes go dark as he steps closer to her.

_ Uh oh! _ Darcy thinks and she quickly turns her back to Bucky to go to the fridge. “I thought I would spend the day with Jane in the lab.” Darcy tells him, “I am way behind and will need to work a few full days to sort everything out again.”

“Sounds good, I can help out if you need it and can take you for lunch?” Bucky smiles hopefully as he moves away and takes a seat across the bench from her.

“I think it will just be a lot of boring organisation work today, and I really should spend some quality girl time with Jane.” Forcing herself to ignore the pull in her stomach at the visible disappointment on Bucky’s face Darcy adds another layer to her deception. “How about we do lunch tomorrow and we can also spend some time on the training floor?”

“Sounds good, Doll.” Bucky forces himself to give her a smile, trying to hide the fact that he’s desperate to spend time with her right now. “You want a hand carrying those breakfasts to the lab?”

“Yeah that would be great, thank you.” Although Darcy doesn’t want to risk Bucky and Jane speaking, it would be more of a risk to brush him off completely and she doesn’t want to say goodbye just yet,  _ although he won’t know it’s goodbye _ . 

Bucky picks up the food and Darcy picks up the tray of drinks, including the caramel latte Bucky brought her and they head to the elevator. Bucky, ever the gentleman, opens the doors for her and motions Darcy to go through first. She stands with her back against the side of the elevator, drinking in the view of him as innocuously as possible, committing his every feature into her mind. They chat about the night before, laughing as they recall Tony trying to teach Bruce how to do the macarena and Clint persuading Steve to join in due to it being ‘a requirement for the present day courting rituals’.

Darcy is relieved when they get to the labs to find Jane lying under one of her machines swearing and banging as she smashes a wrench against it. “It’s gonna be one of those days.” She sighs to Bucky, throwing in an eye roll for full effect.

“I can see that, let me know if you need a break and I’ll get FRIDAY to run a fire drill.” He winks at Darcy as he puts the tray down on the one tiny part of the table not covered in takeout boxes.

“Don’t joke about that, a rescue may be needed.” Darcy laughs as she gestures to the mess in the lab.

“Mmm I have fun thinking about you being the damsel in distress and needing me to save you.” Bucky jokes making Darcy’s breath hitch as he steps in close and gently brushes his lips across her cheek, which flushes a light pink.

“Well don’t let it go to your head!” Darcy calls as he heads back into the elevator and the doors close as his chuckle reaches her ears. 

Fighting the need for tears, although no one would be able to tell, she delivers the food to the scientists and takes in their levels of distraction. Bruce mumbles a thank you and focuses back in on his experiment eating with one hand, however both Tony and Jane don’t even compute that Darcy is there. Using this to her advantage Darcy stealthy palms her interface from Tony’s office and attaches it to Jane’s wrist and sets it off, confusing FRIDAY to think that Jane is Darcy and Darcy is Jane. Wearing the back up watch she created, Darcy heads to the elevator and travels down the tower. 

Her hopes for an exit without issue are dashed when the elevator opens a few floors off ground level and a tall man with maroon coloured skin enters.  _ Oh fuck it’s Vision.  _ He nods politely at her and she nods back, before looking straight ahead, hoping that by ignoring him it will dissuade any conversation he might try begin. Darcy can see from her peripheral vision that he is staring at her and she has to stamp down the urge to bolt when the doors open on the ground floor. 

“I feel a connection with you.” Vision utters before she can step out. 

Darcy looks at him and he appears confused as he touches the yellow stone in his forehead. Still fighting the urge to run she doesn’t respond, instead giving him an awkward small smile before turning and walking out of the elevator and through the Avengers Tower lobby at a steady pace. She disappears into the New York traffic resisting the urge to look back. Darcy gets the subway, then a bus, and then a train and is in another country before anyone realises what she’s done.

 

...

  
  


“OOPMHH!” Steve exclaims as Bucky throws him into the mats.

“52:51” Bucky announces, puffing a bit as he pulls Steve back up to his feet.

They’ve been sparing for hours, ever since Steve found Bucky restlessly pacing the common area after lunch. Bucky was disappointed that Darcy and the scientists were still in the labs, even though Jane had gone out. He knew that Darcy had said that she would be too busy today but he had hoped that she would miss him like he missed her and make the time to take a short break. He couldn’t come up with a good reason to visit the labs without seeming desperate so he had almost worn a track in the carpet as he waited for the day to end and for Darcy to then come up to cook dinner.

“Let’s call it a day eh Buck?” Steve suggests as he tosses him a bottle of water.

“Yeah OK.” Bucky replies as he catches the bottle effortlessly in his metal hand and drinks the whole thing in one go. 

Steve takes pity on his friend. “FRIDAY, is Darcy in the kitchen?”

“No Captain Rogers, Darcy is still in Jane’s lab working on the equations for the Einstein-Rosen Bridge portal.”

“Thanks FRIDAY” Bucky replies, lying down on the mats exhausted, Steve joins him. They don’t say anything for a little bit, being best friends it seems that they often communicate almost telepathically.

“She’s been through a lot Buck, with losing you and discovering this new power. She probably just needs some time to situate herself again.” Steve tries to placate Bucky as they stare up at the rafters where Natasha and Barton are doing some sort of acrobatics on the beams.

“She’s not used to being able to rely on others.” Bucky replies, “sure Hydra have had me for 70 years but I started out with a loving family and then I had the Commandos watching my back. Darcy barely remembers her family and since the Red Room took her she’s had no one like we have. Sure the Monks were generous but they didn’t exactly treat her like a daughter or with any love. We just need to convince her that we aren’t going anywhere and she can trust us.” Bucky pauses but Steve doesn’t say anything, waiting patiently. “Tell me about her new power Steve. Darcy already gave me a run down but I want to hear what you saw.”

Steve slowly recaps what happened. “She was upset with what that Hydra idiot was saying, and this glow emanated from her, like it does when she heals, but instead of that white light, it was a dark sludge. Then she emitted this shockwave, which knocked everyone in the room out, it gave my heart a jolt, enough to make me fall. The guy she was holding, he was dead, and his eyes were completely black, devoid of anything. If I was superstitious I would say it was almost like his soul was gone.”

They sit in silence again, as Bucky ponders over what Steve just told him until all of a sudden Bucky jumps up into the air. “FRIDAY! Did you say Darcy was doing equations?” He shouts at the AI making Steve jump up in worry and Nat and Clint stop their training and look down from the ceiling at them questioningly.

“Yes Sergeant, she is still there now.” The AI replies.

Bucky turns to Steve, fear written over his face. “Jane never lets Darcy do equations.” Steve is sprinting for the elevator before Bucky has even finished his sentence, Bucky hot on his tail. As the elevator doors open, Nat and Barton are entering with them.

“FRIDAY ask Tony to check Jane’s lab for Darcy.” Steve orders as the elevator zooms upwards.

“Sir is not responding at this time as he has the music set too high and I am locked out of the volume control. I can assure you that I can see Ms Lewis in the lab,” is the AI’s response and the doors slide open letting them out into the lab floor.

They all race to Dr Foster’s lab and stop in their tracks when they see Jane at the whiteboard writing equations.

“Yobannye passatizhi!” Nat whispers. (*Jesus Christ!*)

“Jane, where is Darcy?” Bucky demands, making the diminutive scientist jump in surprise.

“Um, I don’t know?” Jane responds looking at the four Avengers in her lab a little owlishly as her brain catches up. “I thought she would be with you today.”

“Look at this.” Clint says taking Jane’s arm gently and taking the interface watch off her wrist.

“Can you see Darcy now FRIDAY?” Bucky asks, as he strides across the office, checking behind all the machinery, even though he knows the answer and it feels like a crack is appearing in his heart.

“No Sargent Barnes.” The AI responds, “she tricked my systems with her updated interface. When Doctor Foster left this morning it must have been Darcy.”

“Fuck.” Steve mutters under his breath. 

  
  
  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Yobannye passatizhi.” is a Russian exclamation for a negative surprise, most commonly compared to someone saying “Jesus Christ!” It doesn't literally translate to it but it is the easiest way to explain it.
> 
>  
> 
> As always, let me know your thoughts my dear readers xox


	19. Darcy Lewis is no Fool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a job for all of you fantastic readers. I'm sick of all my chapters just being titled Chapter 1, Chapter 2 etc. But I just don't have the brain power to rename them myself. So I would love some suggestions for what to call each chapter. Feel free to comment below or to make it easy you could comment on the relevant chapter with your title idea then I will pick the best for each and rename them and mention you in the notes! :)
> 
>  
> 
> Again thank you so much to the wonderful Kat_Henshaw_ZombieCyborgAssassin for beta-ing this chapter! xxx

Steve and Bucky have been living in the quinjet the past a few weeks as they travel the world following up any and all clues on Darcy’s whereabouts they can.  FRIDAY has sent them to northeastern Greenland, believing to have found a series of partial images that match Darcy at a winter resort.

“Shouldn’t take us too long to get there.” Bucky says as he looks at the hologram map, “it’s going to be hard to track her down in the mountains though.”

“Let’s hope we find her in the ski lodge then and not out snowboarding.” Steve replies. But of course he has jinxed them because as the jet comes across the mountains and towards the resort they see a snowboarder, at the precipice of a ski slope, stop in their tracks and turn to face the incoming quinjet.

“FRIDAY, don’t we have the camouflage on?” Bucky queries.

“Yes of course Sergeant.” The AI responds.

“Why are they looking over at us then?” Steve asks.

“That’s Darcy!” Bucky exclaims as the figure quickly turns and begins to snowboard down the rough snowy mountain terrain. He hastily takes chase, piloting the quinjet after her.

“Bucky...” Steve says looking worriedly at the hologram map, “Darcy is running out of mountain. This slope is about to end!” He runs down the gangway and hooks himself up to the cable, preparing to jump out the back platform and save her from falling.

“Stubborn woman.” Bucky grumbles as Darcy bends over and starts moving even faster down the mountain than before. “We’re not going to reach her in time!” He calls to Steve as Darcy launches over the edge of the slope. She quickly turns in mid-air and throws a snowball at the jet. It lands on the nose of the jet and then is dispersed along the front window screen, sticking to it tightly. “What is she doing?” Bucky muses perplexed. Then a parachute appears from Darcy’s backpack and she’s gliding off, directing herself to the ground.

“Clever girl.” Steve comments, realising that she used the snowball to confirm the location of the quinjet. “Follow her till she lands.” But no sooner has Steve said this than Darcy unhooks her parachute and it floats up and covers the quinjet, capturing them like a giant net.

“What the hell?” Bucky mutters as he pauses the jet in mid-flight, hoping the parachute will slide off. Unfortunately, there is a big gust of wind and the parachute is blown over and the jet shudders as the chute is sucked into an engine.

“Dammit.” Steve curses looking out the window, still attached to the cable, as the controls start to beep and then the jet loses control, diving into the side of the mountain.

“She is going to get such a spanking when I get my hands on her!” Bucky grumbles as he picks himself up off the floor. But before he can storm out the slope moans and a rush of snow is let loose.

“Avalanche!” Steve yells from the seat where he was knocked to, as he and Bucky brace for impact. But it’s only a small snow slide that barely affects the quinjet, pushing it only a few feet, although the snow does cover any tracks of where Darcy could land. “I’m going after her!” Steve shouts as he rushes out the gangplank. He gives chase in the direction they last saw Darcy. He uses his shield as a toboggan trying to move faster through the powdery snow than he could on foot. However, he’s forgotten that he’s still attached to the jet and when the cable runs out of length Steve is pulled backwards off the shield into a mound of snow. The sound of Bucky’s laughter fills his ears and then he feels strong hands on his ankles, hauling him up and out of the freezing cold snow.

“What a punk.” Bucky snorts, shaking with laughter as he pulls a device out of his pocket and uses it to scan for signs of life. “No humans around. Well at least we know the avalanche didn’t bury her.”

“When she comes back to the tower, I’m pouring a bucket of ice down her back.” Steve manages to say through chattering teeth, his nose red from the cold, as he jogs after his shield still sliding down the hill.

...

“Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, I have located Ms Lewis in the Whitsundays, located in Queensland, Australia. I was able to get a partial match on facial recognition from a tourist’s Instagram account. I’m sending you the coordinates now and rerouting your flight path.”

“Thanks FRIDAY.” Steve acknowledges the AI, his look of relief mirrored by Bucky. Although it’s been a few weeks since the snow incident they are both glad they are going to someplace tropical.

They park the quinjet before first light on the other side of the island to where Darcy was spotted, having learned their lesson last time. Being stuck in snow while they wait for Tony to arrive to repair the jet was not their idea of a good time. They creep through the mangroves trying to be as inconspicuous as possible as the sun begins to rise. Ignoring the wildlife that sings and howls and laughs in the bushes around them. As they round the edge of the bay into where Darcy was seen, they pause, seeing her silhouette on the shoreline, she’s in a wetsuit and has a surfboard next to her. It’s obvious she has been camping on the secluded beach as her little tent is pitched up a little way from the ocean tide line. Without a word to each other they move in tandem towards a hiding spot closer to the water, it’s so sparkly in the rising sun it looks like it’s made of diamonds. Steve and Bucky both know the perfect time to try and cross the empty sand won’t be until she has already caught a wave and is heading back, unable to do anything to stop her momentum, so they settle themselves in to wait. 

Darcy picks up the board and runs into the ocean, jumping on top of the surfboard and paddling out past the where the waves are breaking, she then pauses, looking back at the shore. Scanning the bushline, like she’s looking for something.

“There’s no way she knows we’re here.” Bucky mutters under his breath as Darcy keeps looking their way. Then, all of a sudden, she dives off the board and into the water, disappearing under the crystal like surface.

“What, is she going fishing?” Steve questions, somewhat irked they have to continue to stay hidden. He doesn’t do to well with keeping a low profile like the spies do. He’s having a hard time keeping still and crouched low behind the shrubbery. Whereas Bucky, a trained sniper, could stay hidden like this for days without issue.

“How does she know we’re here?” Bucky groans as the minutes tick by and Darcy doesn’t reappear from the sea. He stands up and stalks towards the ocean, not exactly sure what he’s going to do but has a desperate need to do something.

Steve yells from behind, “I’ll go grab the quinjet, you try find a boat.”

Bucky has no luck finding a boat and is just about to wade into the water in his full tac gear when the jet appears, piloted by Steve. They have no luck scanning the sea for signs of humans, although they find lots of other animals.

“Do you think she got eaten by a shark?” Steve asks, his tone almost hopeful, trying to add levity to the situation as he knows how worried Bucky is getting. He knows how worried he is himself.

Bucky lets out a snicker. “We wouldn’t be so lucky. Look there are a few fishing vessels up there, let’s go see if she’s on one of them.”

But there is no trace of her on any of them.

…

“Here’s your problem Cap.” Tony declares holding a pair of tweezers up in the air with a tiny bit of metal between the pincers.

“What is that Stark?” Bucky asks. Steve and Bucky are back in New York for a brief stop over to refuel and they decided to approach Tony about the possibility of Darcy getting some sort of signal from the quinjet. Instead they found that Steve’s shield was the culprit.

“It’s a micro-bug. It transmits to a device once it gets within a certain radius of the receiver.” Tony explains.

“Are you telling me the reason Darcy keeps escaping by the skin of her teeth is because my shield was notifying her every time we got close?” Steve says in disbelief.

“Yup.” Tony replies, chuckling a little as he places the bug on the benchtop. “She is pretty damn clever. I wonder when she would have had the chance to place this.”

Bucky can’t help the smile that spreads across his face. “She sure is resourceful.”

Tony takes in Bucky’s dopey grin and shakes his head mockingly. “Man do you have it bad.”

“Shut it Stark.” Bucky retorts. “At least now the odds are a little more even.”

…

Darcy has been in Croatia, camping in a gorgeous forest the past couple of days but she is desperate for a shower and to clean her hair. The nearby waterfalls and the handful of soapwort plant she found will have to make do before she moves on. Darcy knows she cannot go back to China even though she wants too. The Monks were great with getting her to control her healing power so surely, they would be able to help her with this soul sucking power too.  _ It helps that they aren’t touchy feelie so there wouldn’t be any accidents. _

As she walks along the river leading to the falls she remembers back when her healing power first started getting stronger, by the time she found the Monks she couldn’t help but use it every time someone touched her. However, with years of training and meditation Darcy took control over it and now it only works if she wants it too.  _ Logically the same should apply to this other power too, _ a little voice pipes up in the back of her head. 

Reaching the water Darcy begins to strip down. Leaving her clothing on the edge of the lake.  _ Thank god for the bug I placed on Steve’s shield. I know I’m the only one out here, _ Darcy thinks as she steps into the cool lake of water, naked except for the watch on her wrist.  _ They definitely would have caught me in Australia otherwise. _ She wades to the waterfalls, the water isn’t too deep, just past her waist, and ducks her head under before making a lather in her hands with the soapwort leaves.

Washing her hair thoroughly under the falls, combined with the sound of the water hitting the rocks means that she completely misses the already near silent footsteps coming closer through the underbrush. As she rinses her hair, her eyes closed, she doesn’t hear the gentle splash as someone enters the lake of water and makes their way over to her. She does however feel the surge of water against her skin that comes from someone moving through the pool.

Darcy strikes out quickly before she manages to blink all the water from her eyes but her fists are quickly wrapped up in bigger hands, one warm and rough, the other cool and smooth. She’s pushed back against the rock wall under the falls and a hard muscled body presses up against her as her wrists are pinned above her head. Eyes dark with want and need, Bucky crushes his mouth to hers.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe the slow burn is over? What do you think?


	20. This isn't the end for Darcy Lewis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Words are said, emotions are had, the end of the beginning happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thanks to NevermoreBlack for all the brilliant chapter titles for this series! Keep them coming! xox
> 
> Thank you so much to the amazing Kat_Henshaw_ZombieCyborgAssassin for being a brilliant encourager, brainstormer and beta.
> 
> Just a reminder that I do have a tumbler now to take prompts and chat about ideas, search for livvynicklaus

Steve stands, rooted to the spot, unable to look away as he watches Bucky move a naked Darcy up against the rocks and crush his mouth to hers. He knows he shouldn’t be watching but Steve just can’t seem to look away. The angle that he’s standing at allows him to see the profile of the couple as the water streams around them. Bucky has pushed himself right up against Darcy, covering most of her front. But with his super-soldier eyesight Steve can make out the contour of her breast, the curve of her waist and the arch of her back as Bucky holds her wrists above her head, claiming her mouth with his.

The contrast between her milky skin and dark hair flowing down her bare back makes Steve let out a stifled groan. It takes all of his willpower to make his body turn and walk in the opposite direction, resolute in his uncompromising happiness for his best friend.

As Darcy pulls her mouth from Bucky’s she sees Steve disappear into the foliage, she doesn’t have time to process the feeling in her gut as her focus has to be on the super-soldier holding her body hostage.

“Do you know how dangerous this is!” Darcy exclaims, her eyes flashing angrily at Bucky. “I don’t know how much control I have! I could kill you!”

“You’re not dangerous Darce!” Bucky declares, refusing to let go of her wrists even though she indignantly tugs at them. He leans in to kiss her again, but this time Darcy tips her head away, refusing to let his lips near hers. So instead Bucky releases her wrists and stubbornly wraps his arms around her in a bear hug.

“I....” Darcy closes her eyes as she sinks into Bucky’s touch, she had felt bereft the moment she left the tower and realised that they would never do this again. “I can’t trust myself Bucky… Now I know I have this darkness inside me… I can’t put you at risk… I can’t put anyone that I care about at risk…” Darcy stops and starts as she tries to explain herself, desperate for him to understand.

However Bucky understands all too well. “What about me and the trigger words?” he demands. “Should I have left the Tower when Steve brought me in?” 

“No of course not! That’s completely different!” Darcy exclaims, saddened by the thought of Bucky thinking that he could have no one because of what Hydra did to him.

“How is it different? It’s the same thing Doll.” Bucky replies, softly shaking his head at her stubbornness.

“No it isn’t!” Darcy exhales with frustration at Bucky’s seemingly obtuse bull-headedness. “It only takes one touch, one angry moment for me to kill someone. I could roll over and kill someone in my sleep and I’d never know.”

“How is that any different to me? It only takes one touch, one moment under the influence of those words for me to kill someone.” Bucky cups her chin and pulls it up to look at him. “In fact I have come close to killing the people most dear to me a number of times.”

“Yes but they can protect themselves against you.” Darcy is defiant in her view. “No one can protect themselves against this… this evil.”

“How about Bruce?” Bucky asks quietly, “do you think he doesn’t think the same way as you? Out of everyone he is the most like you, yet he perseveres, he stays with the team, with his family.” He takes Darcy’s silence as an opening. “Do you not realise that if you are as dangerous as you think, then the safest place for you is with the Avengers? They are the only people that could stop you” Bucky pulls back so he can look her in the eye, but still keeping her in a firm hug. “But that’s not the issue. We can all work with you Darcy, to ensure you don’t lose control… Like you did with the monks… Like the team did with Bruce and Hulk.” 

“You think you could stop me? You think that any of you could stop me?” Darcy growls at Bucky and then her force-field appears for a split-second, launching Bucky off her and throwing him through the air, the water breaking his fall with a huge splash.

Darcy braces herself for a fight, expecting Bucky to come charging at her in retaliation. But instead, he just bobs in the water where he landed and starts to chuckle.

“What, is this a joke to you now?” Darcy demands, irked that he isn’t doing what she anticipated. But she can’t help the smile that is brought to her face by his laughter echoing around the water.

“You’re just so damn beautiful. I couldn’t have imagined you up in a million years.” Bucky smiles as a blush lightly stains Darcy’s cheeks. 

In all the excitement she had forgotten that she was naked, covered only by some strands of hair and the lake of water that stops at her waist. But Darcy refuses to try and cover up now, letting him know that he’s got under her skin. Instead she takes a very obvious and slow perusal of his body as he stands up in the waist deep water, defined by the wet clothing sticking to his toned body.

“You’re not too bad yourself, Sargeant.” She replies coquettishly, pretending to have more confidence than she does right now. 

“I used to think that we were so mismatched, doll.” Bucky says gently as he takes a step towards her. “You give life, I take it... But during my time with Hydra I now know what it is to regret something I can change…” He continues forward until he is toe to toe with her. “And I swore to myself that I will never live life with regrets again. Please don’t make the same mistake I did and live your life with regrets.”

With that, he grabs Darcy around her waist and lifts her into his arms, gently enough that she can stop him, roughly enough that she knows how much he needs her. 

But Darcy needs no more words and moves into his hold willingly, settling her hands on his shoulders. Bending her neck down she kisses him, gentle movements giving way to desperation as they begin to devour each other. Bucky kneads her ass in his hands, the combination of rough and smooth, warm and cool making Darcy wriggle with desire. 

Tongues clashing together like they’re in a war they each bury their hands in the others hair, each trying to take control of the kiss. Bucky moves them back under the waterfall, turning and bracing them against the stone as Darcy wraps her legs around his waist. The feel of the water pounding on his back matching the thumping of his heart.

Darcy begins to rock gently, but before she can get anywhere Bucky’s hands on her hips stop her movement.

“Doll…” He rasps, voice thick with arousal. “We have to pause here… I can’t… Not here… With you… The first time...” 

Although Darcy wants to complain, she leans back from Bucky with a smile. “I guess you haven’t lost those 1940’s sensibilities yet?” She teases him as she slowly lowers her feet to the ground.

“I ain’t ever gonna take advantage of you Darce.” His accent more concentrated than she had ever heard before, his voice lowering in tone as he continues. “Unless you beg me to of course.” 

“Oh.” Darcy is speechless as her heart lurches as his words, he smirks at her reaction. 

“We should head back to the quinjet, the team have been missing you.” Bucky says as he slowly steps back from her. She can hear the satisfaction in his voice but her brain has yet to return to her body.

“I better go get dressed then.” She murmurs and she wades away from the waterfall, to where she left her clothes. 

Bucky watches her go, enjoying the view of the water sliding down her curvaceous backside. Enjoying it almost most too much as she pulls on her shorts and he has to turn around to try and calm down before he has to exit the water.

They walk hand and hand through the forest to the quinjet, Darcy pauses as it comes into view. Unsure for a moment that this is really the correct decision. But a supportive squeeze of her hand by Bucky bolsters her confidence, and reiterates that she is doing the right thing. They step up the gangplank together.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just like the title says THIS IS NOT THE END! This is just the end of Part 1. As you can probably tell there are a HEAP of things that still need (want) to happen.   
> Thanks so much for sticking with me through this first part of the journey dear readers, your comments have fed me and made this story into what it is. I look forward to hearing what you all think.  
> Hit me up on Tumblr https://livvynicklaus.tumblr.com/ if you want to have a chat or have some requests :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! xox
> 
>  
> 
> I now have a FB page @LivvyNicklaus and a Tumblr livvynicklaus if you want to chat about ideas or have story requests!


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